Vice President JD Vance wanted Tucker Carlson to interview Ghislaine Maxwell to clear Donald Trump’s name, as the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files divided the MAGA base, according to an excerpt of a book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan.

“This is a huge problem,” Vance told those gathered at a meeting in the Situation Room on July 17, 2025. The meeting included then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, chief of staff Susie Wiles, press secretary Karoline Leavitt and communications director Steven Cheung, according to the excerpt. Then-Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were on the phone, according to the book.

Vance then suggested that Carlson interview Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator, in prison as the administration grappled with mounting pressure to release files related to the late convicted sex offender.

According to Haberman and Swan, Vance believed “it might help the president if Maxwell was willing to state that Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing with Epstein.”

At the same meeting, Blanche volunteered to interview Maxwell himself.

A week after the meeting in the Situation Room, Blanche did interview Maxwell. According to transcripts, Maxwell said she never witnessed anything untoward in Trump’s friendship with Epstein and never heard of any allegations that he acted inappropriately.

Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and other charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022. She was serving her sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, until she moved to a more relaxed federal prison camp in Texas after her interview with Blanche.

At the July 17 meeting, the White House counsel brought up pardoning Maxwell or reducing her sentence, but several officials expressed “strong disapproval,” according to the excerpt.

The Trump administration released some of the Epstein files after Congress passed a law forcing them to do so. Trump is mentioned more than 38,000 times in documents, according to a New York Times review.