Vice President JD Vance suggested final summer time that former Fox News host Tucker Carlson ought to interview Jeffrey Epstein affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell to clear the president’s title, a new book reveals.
The suggestion from the vp got here throughout a Situation Room assembly of prime administration officers on July 17, 2025, as they grappled with mounting stress to launch information associated to the late convicted intercourse offender, in response to an excerpt of the book “Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump” that was printed in The New York Times on Wednesday. The book, by reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, is ready to be printed on June 23.
The book excerpt comes because the Trump administration has confronted criticism for its dealing with of the information and as members of Congress continue interviewing individuals who seem within the information on the extent of their relationship with the late convicted intercourse offender. The excerpt additionally reveals a behind-the-scenes assembly that got here even because the administration publicly downplayed the information.
“This is a huge problem,” Vance instructed these gathered on the assembly, which included then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, chief of employees Susie Wiles, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications director Steven Cheung, in response to the excerpt. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel had been on the cellphone, in response to the book.
It was then that Vance suggested the White House strategy conservative commentator Carlson to do a sit down interview with Maxwell in jail. He believed that it could assist Trump amid requires transparency inside his base and stories of the president’s ties to Epstein if Maxwell was “willing to state” Trump hadn’t participated in Epstein’s wrongdoing, in response to the excerpt.
Vance, on the assembly, was additionally an advocate of voluntarily releasing all of the information associated to Epstein as quickly as doable, in response to the book, arguing that the administration ought to get forward of Congress probably forcing the information’ launch — which is what finally got here to move.
Blanche laid out the administration’s choices on the assembly. He supplied to interview the Epstein affiliate himself, in response to the book.
NCS has reached out to the White House, the Justice Department and The Tucker Carlson Network for touch upon the claims within the book excerpt.
Per week after the Situation Room assembly recounted within the book, Blanche did interview Maxwell. According to transcripts, which had been launched later that summer time, Maxwell stated she by no means witnessed something untoward in Trump’s friendship with Epstein and by no means heard of any allegations that he acted inappropriately.
Maxwell was supplied restricted immunity throughout the interview in order that she may focus on her prison case, however the Justice Department didn’t promise another advantages in change for her testimony, in response to the transcript.
The White House counsel introduced up the choice of pardoning Maxwell or decreasing her sentence throughout the July 17 assembly, the book excerpt says, however a number of officers expressed “strong disapproval.”
In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in jail for intercourse trafficking minor women for Epstein. Per week after the interview with Blanche, she was moved from a Florida jail to a lower-security federal jail camp in Texas.
Trump’s Justice Department, in the meantime, started releasing information associated to Epstein in December after months of resistance and after Congress handed a regulation forcing it to take action. The president’s name is mentioned greater than 1,000 instances within the paperwork, which prompted scrutiny over his ties to Epstein.
Among the information was an inventory of unverified assault allegations in opposition to Trump compiled by FBI officers, together with FBI notes a couple of girl who accused Trump in a lawsuit of raping her when she was 13. The paperwork additionally included an FBI interview with one in all Epstein’s victims who acknowledged that Maxwell as soon as “presented her” to Trump at a celebration.
The Justice Department stated on the time that the allegations in opposition to Trump within the paperwork had been false. The president has lengthy denied any wrongdoing associated to Epstein or any allegation of sexual misconduct. There’s additionally no public proof that the allegations in opposition to Trump had been deemed credible by the FBI.