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The Trump administration is playing a messy game of hot potato with the Jeffrey Epstein saga, and now it’s been dropped into Ghislaine Maxwell’s hands.

Within hours of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt urging anyone still upset over the administration’s handling of the Epstein files to direct their fury to the Justice Department, Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday announced that efforts were underway to arrange a sit-down with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking young girls to her late partner.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has been tasked with speaking to Maxwell to determine if she “has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims,” he said in a statement.

“I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department,” Blanche continued. “I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days. Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government. That changes now.”

Buried in his statement was a refurbished attempt at damage control over the still-raging Epstein controversy, which has seen some of the president’s most ardent supporters melting down after the administration that had long hyped up claims about a secret Epstein client list suddenly claimed no such list existed.

“This Department of Justice does not shy away from uncomfortable truths, nor from the responsibility to pursue justice wherever the facts may lead,” Blanche said, reiterating the department’s earlier assertion that “no evidence was uncovered” in the files suggesting any “third parties” should be charged with crimes related to Epstein’s sex trafficking.

“I can confirm that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully,” her attorney David Markus said in a statement. “We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”

The timing of Bondi’s fact-finding mission may prove fortuitous to Maxwell, who filed a petition with the Supreme Court earlier this year to vacate her 2021 conviction in a fight that her lawyer has suggested might boil down to one man: Trump. While the Justice Department has urged the high court not to take up Maxwell’s appeal, her lawyer, David Markus, claimed in a statement last week that the “ultimate dealmaker” Trump might not be aware of his own government’s opposition to Maxwell’s appeal.

Trump Administration Punts the Epstein Scandal to Ghislaine Maxwell

Trump Administration Punts the Epstein Scandal to Ghislaine Maxwell