Ghislaine Maxwell has made a series of claims in a recent interview with the US Justice Department, among them the allegation that a picture of herself, Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre was 'fake'.
The convicted sex offender is currently in prison in the US and was recently moved to a minimum-security facility in Texas. She is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking crimes related to the case of her paedophile boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein.
Donald Trump's government has been mired in controversy over the Epstein files, with the Justice Department declaring earlier this year that there would be no further documents released to the public on the matter.
Figures in the administration have insisted there was no 'list' of clients, despite previous claims from Attorney General Pam Bondi that she had just such a list sitting on her desk.
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Maxwell was interviewed about the Epstein case last month, and a newly-released transcript of that conversation contains various claims about people accused of having an association with her sex offender ex.
Among the claims she made were that Virginia Giuffre's account of being paid to have a relationship with Prince Andrew and that he had sex with her at Maxwell's London home was 'rubbish' and 'mind-blowingly not conceivable'.
The convicted sex offender alleged that she wasn't the one who introduced Andrew to Epstein and alleged that the image showing her standing with Andrew and Giuffre was 'literally a fake photo'.
The picture in question is alleged to have been taken in 2001 in Maxwell's house and shows Prince Andrew with his arm around Giuffre, who would have been 17 at the time, while Maxwell is standing behind them. Giuffre claimed she owned the original and gave it to the FBI.
Giuffre accused Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her in a case that was settled out of court for £12 million. He denied the allegations and, in the settlement, made no admission of guilt.
She died by suicide at the age of 41 earlier this year, leaving behind a message urging people to protect victims of abuse, saying: "Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers need to show the battle lines are drawn, and stand together to fight for the future of victims."
Following her death, her family said it would be a 'travesty' if Maxwell was pardoned, calling the idea a 'slap in the face' and questioning 'why are we listening to a known perjurer'.
Maxwell had been charged with lying under oath after denying knowledge of Epstein's sex trafficking, although the charge was later separated and dropped by prosecutors to focus on the more serious charges of sex trafficking she faced.
Elsewhere in her interview, Maxwell denied that the much-discussed 'Epstein list' existed, saying: "There is no list."
Maxwell said she never witnessed Donald Trump, whom Epstein once described as his 'closest friend for 10 years', doing anything inappropriate.
Trump has claimed that pictures of himself together with Epstein were 'fake news' and insisted that the birthday letter he allegedly wrote to Epstein telling him 'may every day be another wonderful secret' was also fake.
Maxwell said she also did not believe that Epstein killed himself, telling interviewers 'I do not believe he died by suicide' but also saying she did 'not have any reason' to believe he'd been killed to stop him from talking. She claimed the theory he'd been murdered was 'ludicrous', which seems hard to square away with her belief that he didn't kill himself - unless she thinks he just happened to die of natural causes.
The paedophile officially died by suicide on 10 August, 2019, with recently released CCTV footage appearing to show him being taken to his cell and nobody else approaching.
However, the camera does not provide a direct view of Epstein's cell door, and there is time missing from the footage, which US officials claim is a standard feature of the camera resetting for a new day, but the absence of information only fuels speculation.
Topics: Jeffrey Epstein, Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre, Donald Trump, US News, Crime
Joe Harker