The Senate on Wednesday unanimously agreed that Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, should not be allowed a presidential pardon or clemency of any kind.
The resolution was brought by Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who said it was to prevent acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, whom President Trump nominated to stay in the role, from giving Maxwell a pardon in exchange for clearing Trump’s name.
Maxwell is 64.
Rosen said in a speech on the Senate floor: “It’s frankly horrifying that Trump would entertain the idea of clemency for even a second for a convicted sex trafficker.”
Rosen told the Senate, “There should never be a pardon for someone who helped a monster abuse underage girls for years.”
By failing to object to Sen. Jacky Rosen’s resolution, Republicans agreed that the president “should not grant a pardon, commutation, or any other form of executive clemency to Ghislaine Maxwell,” according to the resolution.
Rosen said, “If Republicans advance Todd Blanche’s nomination tomorrow in the Judiciary Committee, this is the least they can do to make their opposition to a Maxwell pardon clear.”
Democrats wanted to put every Republican senator on record as opposed to a potential pardon.
Rosen then asked for unanimous consent for her resolution, and it received no opposition on the floor, meaning the Senate officially agreed to it.
Senate resolutions like these are symbolic and non-binding.
Blanche has said he will not recommend a pardon for Maxwell, but Trump has not ruled it out, and Maxwell’s lawyer has said she will continue seeking clemency.
Last July, while visiting his Turnberry resort in Scotland, Trump told reporters he was open to the question, saying “Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody’s approached me with it, nobody’s asked me about it.”
Trump gave a similar answer to reporters at the White House, saying: “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”
Blanche interviewed Maxwell for two days last summer, producing written testimony in which Maxwell said she had never seen Trump engage in improper conduct.
Shortly afterward, Maxwell was moved to a lower-security prison facility, and Blanche has defended that move.
Rosen introduced the measure in February to oppose a pardon for Maxwell earlier this year but asked for a vote now because Senate Republicans are considering confirming Blanche as the permanent head of the Justice Department, noting that while serving as deputy attorney general last summer, he interviewed Maxwell and offered her immunity for anything said in that conversation.
Rosen cited a New York Times report saying Blanche raised the possibility that Maxwell’s lawyer “might expect something in return for her candor,” saying, “You heard that right. There was literally a serious discussion to talk about pardoning or reducing the sentence of Ghislaine Maxwell just in order to get her to say nice things about Donald Trump.”
Senator Rosen told the Senate, “There should never be a pardon for someone who helped a monster abuse underage girls for years.”
In the viral moment that prompted the Senate vote,
Maxwell’s attorney said she is “prepared to speak fully and honestly” if President Donald Trump grants her clemency after she refused to answer questions from the House Oversight Committee.
Maxwell, speaking from prison, repeatedly stated “I invoke my Fifth Amendment right to silence” more than a dozen times during the closed-door virtual deposition, refusing to answer any questions on the panel’s investigation into Epstein.
Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Markus said in a statement after her appearance: “Only she can provide the complete account” of Epstein’s actions, noting that “For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing. Ms. Maxwell alone can explain why, and the public is entitled to that explanation.”
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of multiple sex trafficking charges for involvement in recruiting underage girls to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein and his associates and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
Maxwell’s lawyer has said she will continue seeking clemency.