Blackmail and Brownstones: Todd Blanche Locked Ghislaine Maxwell into Her Obvious Lies www.emptywheel.net/2025/08/28/b...
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just so sad “Yesterday, the same day Bill Gates quietly met at the White House with Trump, we learned that Gates had defunded Arabella Foundation, and with it a number of left-leaning groups.
aug 28, 2025, 11:48 am • 4 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/chri...
aug 28, 2025, 11:15 am • 14 10 • view
You mean….she lied?
aug 28, 2025, 2:51 pm • 0 0 • view
in the game, the madam rehearses certain lies. Epstein would lie to Ghislaine that the rooms were not wired for video, and Ghislaine would repeat the lie without checking for herself. That allows Ghislaine to lie to the marks with a level voice. #WheresBarr?
aug 28, 2025, 11:13 am • 3 0 • view
She perjured herself on her own trial. She knows damn well what really happened, and so does Blanche, most likely. They just needed a tape (for the MAGA base) of her explicitly stating she had no knowledge of Trump comitting any criminal acts, despite that most likely not being true.
aug 28, 2025, 11:36 am • 7 2 • view
The prosecutors will instinctively ask only softball questions so the answers will be only half-truths that never implicate anyone else besides Trump. I wrote this BEFORE Maxwell received perks like a nicer prison #WheresBarr?
aug 28, 2025, 1:17 pm • 1 2 • view
Prosecutors aren't supposed to ask any questions, except during court proceedings. This whole thing was highly unusual, and definitely not in service of delivering justice. It's all in service of attempting to exhonerate a clearly compromised/implicated president.
aug 28, 2025, 1:26 pm • 2 2 • view
you didn't read my screed. The real coverup is William Barr disappeared the evidence videos from the locker. Everyone thinks the coverup is to protect the president. That's why Yale frat brats will condition Maxwell by rehearsing her testimony. #WheresBarr?
aug 28, 2025, 3:32 pm • 2 1 • view
Maxwell admitted in her 2016 deposition that she met Roberts Giuffre at Mar-a-Lago. And she more or less admitted that she recruited her to give Epstein a massage.
aug 28, 2025, 3:09 pm • 12 8 • view
TY. I really feel like someone should put together a report of how corrupt Blanche's questioning was, for HJC and Oversight Dems.
aug 28, 2025, 3:13 pm • 18 6 • view
Here's the link to the depo, meant to include in my last skeet.
aug 28, 2025, 3:16 pm • 2 2 • view
Note that in the Blanche interview she also tried to dodge comparing notes with Epstein.
aug 28, 2025, 3:22 pm • 7 3 • view
Nicely done, @emptywheel.bsky.social . If only the American mainstream media could exhibit a fraction of the skill AND COURAGE you show with this article. 🏆
aug 28, 2025, 11:07 am • 15 3 • view
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sep 3, 2025, 1:29 am • 0 0 • view
I agree that much of what Blanche was up to was locking Maxwell in to a general position vis a vis Trump, but should her ask escalate beyond Club Fed, she likely has plenty of wiggle room to see things seeded in the press while foreswearing personal knowledge (as she did with the birthday book).
aug 28, 2025, 3:18 pm • 0 0 • view
Nope. Bc then she gets prosecuted for the clear false claims she made.
aug 28, 2025, 3:23 pm • 2 0 • view
Didn’t she get immunity for her answers to Blanche? But the whole point was to “exonerate” Trump. They won’t prosecute her for falsely exonerating someone else they would like to implicate—like Clinton. She knew that. So she went wide—no one did anything wrong.
aug 28, 2025, 3:55 pm • 0 0 • view
It's the normal use immunity for a proffer. So they can't use what she says to prosecute her for other offenses, but if she lies they CAN prosecute that, and if she testifies otherwise elsewhere, they can introduce the contradictory testimony to impeach it.
aug 28, 2025, 4:00 pm • 1 0 • view
Either way, so much about the context of the meeting, Blanche's questioning (including letting her counsel take the lead for a bit), and the oddity of her answers makes me think sustaining a false statements charge would prove more difficult (and politically dangerous) than it'd be worth.
aug 28, 2025, 4:03 pm • 2 1 • view
As much as she lied throughout, I'd have to think an actual false claims case'd be hard to bring successfully (and wouldn't much change her calculus given the years she's facing). Either way her hand hinges almost entirely on the strength of her evidence/how much worse yet she can make it for Trump.
aug 28, 2025, 3:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Maxwell is part of the self-privileged elite. She believes they are entitled to any pleasure and entitled to lie to get away with everything.
aug 28, 2025, 3:58 pm • 1 0 • view
📌
aug 28, 2025, 11:42 am • 0 0 • view
Blanche was asking lead g questions ❗️ I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a script and they followed a script and he pointed at it as she stumbled on an answer. What a joke.😡
aug 28, 2025, 11:57 pm • 0 0 • view
It’s curious that James Comer agreed to delay on August 1 Maxwell’s testimony before Congress. After Blanche had locked her in to her lies, as you’ve shown, additional questioning would have proved troublesome.
aug 28, 2025, 11:31 am • 6 4 • view
1/2 "Yesterday, the same day Bill Gates quietly met at the White House with Trump, we learned that Gates had defunded Arabella Foundation, and with it a number of left-leaning groups".
aug 28, 2025, 1:15 pm • 5 1 • view
2/2 "Gates is the most prominent person reported to be blackmailed by Epstein. If the FBI collected evidence that Epstein had blackmail material on Gates, Trump would now have it."
aug 28, 2025, 1:15 pm • 7 2 • view
Melinda Gates basically said she divorced him because he was hanging around Epstein.
aug 28, 2025, 9:08 pm • 1 0 • view