SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Busy Friday for the Justice Department. Yesterday morning, FBI agents searched the home and office of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser, and now his prominent critic, John Bolton. Years later - hours later, the department released transcripts from its recent interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us. Ryan, thanks for being with us.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Thanks for having me, Scott.
SIMON: And let's begin with Ghislaine Maxwell. Remind us why the DOJ talked to her in the first place.
LUCAS: So Maxwell's a former girlfriend and, as you said, longtime associate of Epstein's. She's currently serving a 20-year sentence on sex trafficking and other charges for helping Epstein sexually exploit underage girls. Now, the No. 2 official in the Trump Justice Department, the president's former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, he sat down for a two-day interview with Maxwell in Florida last month, and he did so because the DOJ is trying to tamp down the public blowback that it's faced over its handling of the Epstein files.
SIMON: Anything stand out from those transcripts for you?
LUCAS: Well, there weren't any major revelations. Many of the famous names that have surfaced over the years in connection with Epstein do come up. But at one point, Maxwell tells Blanche that she never saw any man do anything inappropriate with a woman of any age while with Epstein. And she also said that Epstein didn't have a client list, that there's no black book, and that he didn't blackmail associates.
SIMON: Now, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein were friends for years before they had an apparent falling out. What did she say about Donald Trump?
LUCAS: So Maxwell told Blanche that she never saw Trump do anything improper. She said he was never in an inappropriate setting. She also said this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GHISLAINE MAXWELL: And as far as I'm concerned, President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me, and I just want to say that I find - admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the president now, and I like him, and I've always liked him.
LUCAS: Now, her attorney says Maxwell told the truth in this interview, but there are a couple of things to bear in mind here. One is that Maxwell, as I said earlier, is serving a 20-year prison sentence. She would very much like a reduction in that sentence or a pardon. The one man who can deliver that is President Trump. The other thing is that, remember, a federal jury in New York heard evidence about Maxwell's role grooming girls for Epstein to sexually exploit, and they convicted her on that evidence.
SIMON: Do you think the transcript and audio recordings are going to convince those who've doubted the department is being open about the Epstein case?
LUCAS: It's hard to imagine, but we'll see what effect this has. Many skeptics want to see the full Epstein files. Now, the Justice Department did send some of those files to the House Oversight Committee on Friday. That was in response to a subpoena. Now, those files aren't going to be made public right away. The committee's Republican chairman says that the panel is going to go through them to make sure that victims' identities and any child sexual abuse materials are redacted first.
SIMON: Finally, Ryan, the FBI search of John Bolton's home and office, what can you tell us?
LUCAS: So Vice President JD Vance has said that this is related, at least in part, to classified documents. Now, Bolton, as you noted at the top, is a very outspoken critic of President Trump. And this search of his home and his office, those come just a couple of weeks after the Justice Department opened probes into two other very prominent outspoken Trump critics. That's California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. So this is just going to deepen concerns about whether the Justice Department is using its enormous powers to pursue President Trump's promised campaign of vengeance against his perceived political enemies.
SIMON: NPR's Ryan Lucas. Thanks so much.
LUCAS: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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