By Luc Cohen
(Reuters) -Ghislane Maxwell, an associate of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, told a top Justice Department official last month that she never saw President Donald Trump in an “inappropriate setting,” according to a transcript of an interview released on Friday.
“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way,” Maxwell said, according to the transcript. “The President was never inappropriate with anybody.”
The Justice Department’s publication of the interview comes as Trump has faced criticism from his conservative base of supporters and congressional Democrats over the Justice Department’s decision not to release the files from its Epstein investigation.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after her 2021 sex trafficking conviction. Prosecutors said she recruited underage girls for Epstein to abuse. She is appealing.
(Reporting by Christian Martinez, Luc Cohen, Andrew Goudsward and Jack Queen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Noeleen Walder)
