WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Friday he has not considered granting a pardon or commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who is back in the news amid a political furor over the case.

“It’s something I haven’t thought about,” Trump told reporters when asked about the possibility of a pardon for Maxwell. “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.”

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, after being found guilty in 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. She is currently appealing her sentence.

Trump has been under growing pressure from his supporters and political opponents to release more information about the Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein, the disgraced financier who officials ruled died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

After Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier this year promised to release additional materials related to possible Epstein clients and the circumstances surrounding his death, the Justice Department reversed course this month and issued a memo concluding there was no basis to continue investigating and no evidence of a client list.

Those findings sparked an angry outcry from some of Trump’s base of supporters who have long believed the government was covering up Epstein’s ties to the rich and powerful.

Deputy U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, said he met with Maxwell in Florida on Thursday and planned to meet with her again on Friday after contacting her lawyers to see if she might have “information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.”

Asked about the meeting between Blanche and Maxwell, Trump said on Friday he wasn’t aware of the details, only that it was taking place.

He then pivoted to other claims, suggesting other high-profile figures should face scrutiny over their ties to Epstein.

“They don’t talk about them. They talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy,” Trump said.

Trump appeared with Epstein at social events in the 1990s and early 2000s. Trump’s name, along with many other high-profile individuals, appeared multiple times on flight logs for Epstein’s private plane in the 1990s. Trump has denied ever being on the plane and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

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(Reporting by Steve Holland and Nandita Bose in Washington; Editing by Colleen Jenkins)