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For two days last month, Ghislaine Maxwell,<\/strong> one of her lawyers, and a top Justice Department official met in a Tallahassee courthouse. Backlash over the Trump administration\u2019s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files was cresting. The private interview did little to quell the increasingly prevalent idea that an unholy bargain<\/a> between the president and Maxwell was being struck in plain sight: her assistance to former Epstein friend Donald Trump<\/strong> in exchange for her freedom, or something closer to it.<\/p>\n As Maxwell\u2019s attorney David Oscar Markus<\/strong> explains it to Vanity Fair,<\/em> cheerfully apologizing for not being able to say more, there\u2019s no cause for concern\u2014even after his client\u2019s recent move to a lower-security facility<\/a>, a change confirmed on Friday, and even as Trump waxes freely<\/a> about his pardon power.<\/p>\n \u201cI wish I could respond to those critics,\u201d the Miami-based lawyer tells me, \u201cbut we\u2019re just not going to comment on that.\u201d<\/p>\n In his representation of Maxwell, Markus has stuck with the argument her lawyers have made since she was indicted toward the end of Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m convinced she never would\u2019ve been charged had Epstein not died in prison,\u201d he insists. \u201cThey needed somebody in that chair, and she was the next person up.\u201d<\/p>\n As the White House seeks to tamp down the furor it has faced since the announcement that no further information on Epstein would be released, it is largely shifting focus toward Maxwell. ABC News reported<\/a> on Tuesday that the Trump administration is considering releasing transcripts of Maxwell\u2019s DOJ interview, and that nothing from the exchange would implicate Trump. The interview was conducted by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche,<\/strong> who served as Trump\u2019s lead defense attorney during his hush money trial<\/a> last year and is counted as a friend by Markus. (Blanche was the first two-time guest on Markus\u2019s podcast, For the Defense.<\/em>)<\/p>\n \u201cThe deputy attorney general is seeking the truth,\u201d Markus told reporters after the meetings. \u201cHe asked every possible question, and he\u2019s doing an amazing job.\u201d In front of the cameras, he looked comfortable but unflashy, at least as far as defense lawyers go\u2014more likely to be seen carrying a backpack into court than wearing a double-breasted suit.<\/p>\n Despite his silence on some of the particulars, Markus has been waging Maxwell\u2019s battle on social media and in the press. \u201cThanks @RepJamesComer,\u201d he wrote on X after the House Oversight chair announced that the committee was subpoenaing his client. \u201cRespectfully, here\u2019s our response.\u201d In addition to making efforts to secure a pardon, Maxwell is appealing her child sex trafficking conviction on the basis that Epstein\u2019s notorious 2007 nonprosecution agreement should have shielded her as a coconspirator. \u201cPresident Trump built his legacy in part on the power of a deal,\u201d Markus wrote<\/a> in a statement last month. \u201cWe are appealing not only to the Supreme Court but to the President himself to recognize how profoundly unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein\u2019s crimes, especially when the government promised she would not be prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n Maxwell\u2019s family has also been circulating talking points developed on its advocacy site, realghislaine.com<\/a>. Playing offense online as well as in court has lately become a more regular strategy in high-profile criminal matters, with lawyers for Karen Read<\/strong><\/a> and Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs<\/strong><\/a> doing as much. (Combs\u2019s attorney Teny Geragos,<\/strong> who defended the mogul on TikTok in the lead-up to his sex trafficking and racketeering trial in May, is slated to appear on Markus\u2019s podcast soon. Combs was acquitted on the most serious charges he faced but convicted on two prostitution counts.)<\/p>\n