WASHINGTON— President Donald Trump said he would “have to take a look” at a potential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, leaving open the possibility of granting a reprieve to the imprisoned former girlfriend and co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein after the Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal of her conviction. 

What You Need To Know

  • President Donald Trump said he would “have to take a look” at a potential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, leaving open the possibility of granting reprieve to the imprisoned former girlfriend and co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein after the Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal of her conviction

  • “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider it, I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “I will speak to the DOJ.”

  • Trump went on to say that “a lot of people” have asked him for pardons and specifically mentioned Sean “Diddy” Combs 

  • Epstein’s case and Maxwell’s role in it was flung back into the public spotlight this summer after a memo from the Justice Department revealed that the Trump administration did not intend to make public any more documents related to his sex trafficking investigation

”I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday when asked about whether he would consider a pardon following the Supreme Court’s rejection. “I would have to take a look. Did they reject that?”

The president said he wasn’t aware of the Supreme Court’s decision Monday or that Maxwell was even seeking to overturn her conviction. He noted that he hadn’t “heard the name in so long,” referring to Maxwell and said he would speak to the Justice Department about the possibility of clemency. 

“I wouldn’t consider it or not consider it. I don’t know anything about it,” he said. “I will speak to the DOJ.”

Trump went on to say that “a lot of people” have asked him for pardons. He specifically mentioned Sean “Diddy” Combs — referring to him as “Puff Daddy,” as he was previously known — who was sentenced last week to four years and two months in prison after being convicted of two counts of transporting people for sexual encounters.

The president seemingly leaving the door open to clemency for the longtime associate of Epstein, the now-deceased convicted sex offender, sparked an unambiguous and fiery response from Laura Loomer, the conservative activist who has been known in the past to have Trump’s ear. 

“I strongly advise AGAINST anyone lobbying the Trump admin and the DOJ to Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell,” Loomer wrote in a post on X. “Do not do it. I repeat. Do not do it.”

Loomer, who has been outspoken on Epstein and has previously criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the situation, also warned that there would “be no coming back” from pardoning Maxwell. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who, along with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., is leading a bipartisan charge on Capitol Hill to force a vote on the government releasing files it has on the Epstein case, also blasted the possibility of pardoning Maxwell. 

”Maxwell is a convicted sex trafficker,” he wrote in a post on X. “The idea that Trump & @JDVance would even consider providing cover for a pedophile is a slap in the face to survivors.”

Epstein’s case and Maxwell’s role in it was flung back into the public spotlight this summer after a memo from the Justice Department revealed that the Trump administration did not intend to make public any more documents related to his sex trafficking investigation. That was despite previous suggestions from Trump officials, including Bondi, that there was more to come.

The department also concluded that there was no evidence Epstein maintained a "client list" of the famous and wealthy who supposedly took part in child abuse and that he died by suicide, which hit at the heart of long-standing theories pushed by some on the right, causing an uproar among some in conservative circles and on Capitol Hill. 

Democrats also jumped on the push for transparency, accusing the Trump administration of trying to hide things in the case and files. 

While Epstein is dead, Maxwell is alive and serving a 20-year sentence for her role in their decadelong effort to sexually exploit and abuse minors. She became a central figure in the reignited saga over Epstein this summer when Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche held two days of talks with her at a federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida. Shortly after that interview, she was transferred to a lower-security, all-female prison camp in Texas, a move Democratic lawmakers have criticized and questioned. 

For his part, Trump who was once a friend of Epstein but cut ties with him years ago, has frequently lamented the revived focus on the sex offender and has repeatedly referred to the attention on it this summer as a “Democrat hoax.” The president is currently suing The Wall Street Journal over reporting involving his relationship with Epstein decades ago.

He has previously not ruled out the possibility of granting clemency to Maxwell, noting to reporters on a trip to Scotland in July that he is “allowed” to do it.

“Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody’s approached me with it," Trumps aid. "Nobody’s asked me about it."