Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, has met twice this week with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche—a move that’s raising eyebrows across Washington and reigniting public demands for transparency in the Epstein saga.
Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida federal prison, reportedly initiated the meetings herself. According to her attorney, David Oscar Markus, she answered “every single question” posed by DOJ officials over the course of nine hours of interviews. Sources indicate that she was granted limited immunity, which allowed her to speak freely without fear of self-incrimination.
The meetings come amid mounting pressure on the Trump administration, which has faced backlash for walking back earlier promises to release all Epstein-related documents. Reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNN indicate that Donald Trump’s name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, though officials stress that being named does not imply wrongdoing.
The House Oversight Committee has now subpoenaed Maxwell to testify remotely in August, potentially opening the door to public revelations about Epstein’s network and its ties to powerful figures. Legal experts believe her testimony could shed light on the alleged “client list,” travel arrangements for underage victims, and whether influential individuals—including politicians and celebrities—were involved.
While the DOJ has stated that no further charges are expected and that no client list exists, critics argue that Maxwell’s cooperation suggests otherwise. As Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz put it, “She is the Rosetta Stone. She knows everything”.
Whether these developments lead to new indictments or deepen public mistrust remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: Maxwell’s voice is no longer silent, and Washington is bracing for what she might say next.
Trump has responded with a mix of deflection, denial, and strategic distancing.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House before departing for Scotland, Trump said he had “nothing to do with the guy,” referring to Epstein, despite years of documented social ties between the two. He dismissed questions about Maxwell’s cooperation with the DOJ, stating, “I haven’t thought about a pardon,” though he acknowledged he was “allowed to do it”.
Critics have pointed to the conflict of interest in Blanche’s role, given his past ties to Trump. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the private interviews “glaring corruption,” while others questioned whether the DOJ’s outreach was a genuine pursuit of justice or a political maneuver.
Trump, meanwhile, shifted focus to other figures linked to Epstein, including Bill Clinton and Larry Summers, saying, “You should focus on them. I sure as hell didn’t live with Epstein”. He also denied sending a lewd birthday letter to Epstein in 2003, calling it “another fake news story” and suing The Wall Street Journal for libel.
The White House communications team has dismissed reports that Trump’s name appears “multiple times” in the Epstein files as “fake news,” despite Attorney General Pam Bondi allegedly briefing him on the matter in May.
Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and is the publisher of the Latino News Network.
A golden tray sits on the Resolute Desk as President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on American nuclear innovation in the Oval Office at the White House on July 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Trump is signing multiple executive orders targeting the nuclear energy sector and easing rules for new reactors and nuclear fuel supply chains.
Trump’s hubris rivals the fallen heroes of ancient Greek mythology
In January, the New York Times asked President Donald Trump if there were any limits on his global powers.
“Yeah,” the president responded, “there is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.”
That was eight months ago, but fortunately Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster adaptation of “The Odyssey” has made ancient Greek literature newly relevant. Before that window closes, I’d like to talk about hubris.
Today, the term mostly means excessive pride or arrogance. That’s part of what the Greeks meant by it too, but the meaning was a bit richer and more specific. Hubris was an insolent or outrageous act that offended the gods, often because the transgressor was claiming abilities or authorities that solely belonged to supreme beings.
Nolan renamed and slightly modified the concept of xenia for the film, calling it “Zeus’ law.” In the director’s telling, mortals should follow the rules laid out by the gods, specifically the requirement to treat strangers with respect lest they be gods in disguise.
In a sense, hubris is the opposite, or at least the rejection, of xenia. The hubris of the suitors, and at times Odysseus himself, invites punishment by the gods and their mortal instruments.
Which brings me back to Donald Trump. His claim that there are no constraints on his personal power to dictate events on the global stage was one of the greatest expressions of hubris ever uttered by a political leader.
Trump’s claim was obviously false when he made it.
He vowed that he could end the Russia-Ukraine war in 24 hours. He’s proved powerless to make that happen. If he had divine powers to work his will, why would he have balked at implementing his tariffs so often that Wall Street adopted the “TACO trade” term for his deals? “TACO” stands for “Trump always chickens out.”
And why would Trump have made so many embarrassing concessions to China — from rescinding tariffs on Chinese goods to allowing them to buy crucial and incredibly valuable computer chips?
But Trump saw his success at capturing Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro as proof of his ability to launch missiles to the same effect as Zeus’ lightning bolts. Trump believed he was the most powerful man who ever lived.
This is no exaggeration. In March, when the Iran invasion seemed successful, Trump gave a document penned by“Presidential Historian David King” to New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan purporting to prove that Trump was “the most powerful person to have EVER walked this planet.” King was, in fact, a businessman and occasional caddy for legendary golfer Gary Player.
King compared Trump favorably to many of history’s most powerful, and often heinous, figures: Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun, William the Conqueror, Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Stalin, Genghis Khan, Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Lenin. Many of these men thought they were the most powerful person in the world, too. And many were defeated precisely because they believed it.
At least Napoleon and Hitler had a string of truly impressive victories before they learned the folly of hubris. The limits on Trump’s power have been exposed by far less august forces than the combined might of the allies in World War II or the fearsome Russian winter.
Iran is a comparatively middling power. But the regime’s ability to absorb punishment while imposing its will on the Strait of Hormuz has proved to be a greater constraint on Trump’s power than his morality or mind. We should note that, at least rhetorically, his morality has not proved much of a constraint. He has repeatedly promised to destroy Iranian “civilization” if the regime refuses to capitulate.
But they haven’t — and won’t anytime soon — because the regime’s tolerance for pain far outstrips Trump’s. The combined fear of skyrocketing oil prices, outrage of Gulf state potentates, diminishing weapon supplies and domestic unpopularity is doing the work that international law, congressional oversight and the collective opinion of foreign policy experts can’t or won’t do.
If I considered Trump more heroic than reason and facts could allow, I would say his Sisyphean predicament has the whiff of Greek tragedy to it. Trump is vexed by the fact that the Iranians won’t honor deals or ratify his countless premature claims of victory — giving new meaning to his vow that his presidency would make people tired of winning. It’s almost like they’re out-Trumping Trump.
Things might have gone better if he’d heeded that great Greek tragedian Sophocles: “For Zeus utterly abhors the boasts of a proud tongue.”
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Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.