“Sham”: Trump Just Made Epstein Fiasco Even More Humiliating for MAGA

President Trump is now suggesting he may pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein who’s serving time for sex trafficking. Trump told reporters: “I’m allowed to do it.” He dispatched Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to solicit testimony from Maxwell, ostensibly to gain new insight into Epstein’s activities. But in today’s episode, lawyer Philip Rotner, author of a new piece for The Bulwark on the Maxwell angle, suggests that the move by Blanche—previously Trump’s personal lawyer—is itself extremely dodgy and appears motivated by a desire to protect Trump. Rotner explains why it’s plausible Blanche hopes to get Maxwell to exonerate Trump, a move Trump could then reward with a pardon. It’s hard to overstate how humiliating all this is for MAGA: After demanding the “Epstein files” for years, they got their people in at the Justice Department—and now they’re taking new steps to cover it all up. While some in MAGA are telling themselves that Maxwell will finally reveal the whole truth, that only makes them look even more absurd. Rotner unpacks the latest developments and explains why it’s all a “sham.” Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.