Acting Attorney General Blanche Tells Senate He Won't Recommend a Pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told a Senate panel on May 19, 2026 that the Justice Department will not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the only person besides Jeffrey Epstein to be convicted in the United States in connection with Epstein’s trafficking operation.¹

The commitment came during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the Justice Department’s budget. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, pressed Blanche to promise that the department would not advise the White House to grant Maxwell clemency. “Yes, I can commit to that, of course,” Blanche replied.¹

A Limited Promise

Blanche’s pledge carries an important limit: it binds only the Justice Department’s recommendation, not the president. The power to pardon belongs solely to President Donald Trump, and he can grant clemency to Maxwell regardless of what the DOJ advises. As MS NOW noted, “there’s no impediment to Trump pardoning her … It’s entirely up to the president whom to pardon.”¹

That distinction has kept the question of a Maxwell pardon alive even as Blanche has tried to close the door on it. Trump has said he is “allowed” to pardon Maxwell but has indicated it is not something he is currently considering; in November 2025 the White House said it was “not something he’s talking about or even thinking about at this moment in time.”⁴ House Republicans have been openly divided over whether Maxwell should receive leniency in exchange for cooperation, and the issue has hung over the administration since Maxwell began talking to federal officials.

Blanche himself conducted a proffer interview with Maxwell while she was incarcerated at a federal facility in Florida in 2025. Maxwell was later transferred to lower-security confinement in Texas — a move that drew criticism from survivors and lawmakers who saw it as a reward for her cooperation. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after her 2021 conviction on five federal counts; the Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal in October 2025.¹

Epstein Looms Over the Budget Hearing

Although the hearing was formally about the administration’s $40.8 billion budget request for the Justice Department — a roughly 13% increase, or about $4.7 billion, over the department’s 2026 enacted level — Epstein and Maxwell were recurring subjects, as was Blanche’s own role in the troubled release of the Epstein files.⁶

Blanche, Trump’s former personal defense attorney, has run the department in an acting capacity since the president fired Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 2 amid dissatisfaction with her handling of the Epstein documents. He also faced questions at the hearing about a roughly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” — styled at $1.776 billion and drawn from a legal settlement with the administration rather than a congressional appropriation — meant to compensate people the administration says were unfairly targeted by the Justice Department under President Biden.⁵ Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, separately demanded that Blanche detail what the department was doing to address coordinated threats against federal judges.²

What Is Established

Blanche has now said publicly, under questioning, that the DOJ will not recommend clemency for Maxwell. What remains unresolved is whether that position constrains the outcome at all, given that the pardon decision is the president’s alone. For survivors who testified before Congress just a week earlier in Palm Beach, the episode underscored a recurring frustration: assurances from officials that stop short of the one decision — Trump’s — that would actually settle the matter.

Documents

• C-SPAN — Acting Attorney General Blanche testifies on DOJ oversight (May 19, 2026) — Full video of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, including the exchange in which Blanche committed not to recommend a Maxwell pardon.

References

1. MS NOW — “Blanche said he won’t recommend a Maxwell pardon. Trump could still grant one.”

2. Foreign Policy Journal — “Acting AG Todd Blanche Faces Senate Grilling Over DOJ Oversight as Fired Pam Bondi Looms Over Hearing”

3. C-SPAN — “Acting Attorney General Blanche Testifies on Oversight of Justice Department”

4. Axios — “Trump not weighing pardon for Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell”

5. PBS News — “Blanche faces senators on new Trump ‘weaponization’ fund, Epstein, budget cuts”

6. Bloomberg Government — “Trump Seeks Boost in DOJ Budget to Propel Law Enforcement Agenda”