Chris Van Hollen

Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday he would not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of Jeffrey Epstein.

Blanche made the commitment while testifying before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee after Democrats accused the Trump administration of politicizing the Justice Department and mishandling matters related to Epstein and Maxwell.

"I can commit to that, of course," Blanche said after being asked by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., whether he could commit to the DOJ not recommending a pardon for Maxwell.

Maxwell, the longtime Epstein associate convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for helping Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls.

The hearing quickly turned combative as Van Hollen accused Blanche, formerly President Donald Trump's personal attorney, of acting more like Trump's "personal lawyer" than the nation's top law enforcement official.

"You are still acting as the president's personal lawyer, not as acting attorney general," Van Hollen said during criticism of the administration's handling of the Epstein investigation and other Trump-era legal matters.

Democrats also criticized Blanche for personally interviewing Maxwell during a two-day meeting tied to the DOJ’s ongoing Epstein-related review.

Shortly after the interview, Maxwell was transferred from a high-security prison facility to a lower-security prison camp — a move critics characterized as suspicious and politically motivated.

Blanche pushed back on those accusations.

"Every word that I asked her is recorded and available for you to review," Blanche said. "The president didn't have anything to do with my choice to interview Ms. Maxwell."

Blanche defended the prison transfer by citing concerns about Maxwell's safety.

The controversy has fueled widespread speculation that Maxwell could eventually seek clemency from Trump in exchange for cooperating with investigators regarding Epstein's network and powerful associates.

Trump previously acknowledged publicly that he possesses the authority to pardon Maxwell but has stopped short of signaling whether he would seriously consider doing so.

Axios noted that Blanche's statement only binds the DOJ's recommendation process, not the president's constitutional pardon authority.

During the hearing, Blanche also apologized for mistakes made during the release of Epstein-related files after victims' names, photographs, and identifying information were inadvertently disclosed.

"Any time we release a victim's name that shouldn't be released, we have failed as a Department of Justice," Blanche said.

Blanche argued the errors occurred because Congress required the DOJ to process millions of Epstein-related documents within a compressed timeline.

"It required us to review over six million pieces of paper in a very short period of time," Blanche said.

Republicans have largely defended the administration’s handling of the Epstein files, arguing Democrats are exploiting the issue politically to attack Trump while overlooking broader failures by previous administrations and federal law enforcement agencies.