CNN’s Michael Smerconish asserted during his show on Saturday that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Ghislaine Maxwell to “collect scalps, and not an orange one.”
Speaking to CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig, Smerconish said that he believes Blanche was meeting with Maxwell to find names of Democrats who may be implicated in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.
“Okay, ready for my theory?” Smerconish began.
“He is there to collect scalps and not an orange one,” the host said of Blanche. “His mission is to come home with names that she‘s prepared to name publicly. The higher place they are in progressive, democratic circles, the better.”
Smerconish continued, “So if she‘s willing to say x, y, and z by name were involved with Epstein beyond just flying on the plane or visiting the island, then for Trump, it‘s the political win that he thinks he needs, where he points in a different direction. And maybe in that circumstance, he cuts her some slack, offering clemency.”
Honig expressed doubt that anyone will be charged over Maxwell’s list.
“Good, so we partially agree, we partially disagree,” Honig began. “So first of all, I do think that whatever names she names in that session, as having committed crimes, will come out eventually and probably sooner than later. I’m not sure where you are on this, but I don’t think there’s any way in the world DOJ actually prosecutes anyone based on that. Maybe there’s some sort of release or announcement, but look, I spent tons of time as a prosecutor dealing with cooperating witnesses.”
Honig continued, “I don’t see any way DOJ comes to the conclusion that Ghislaine Maxwell is fully credible, fully reliable, somebody we want to invest in, somebody we want ask a judge to reduce her sentence, somebody want to indict based on her testimony and then call at trial as a witness. So it could well be that there’s naming of names, but no way is DOJ going to actually bring other indictments of this. So Michael, to your point, you know, we learned yesterday that Ghislaine Maxwell had been asked about 100 different names. That came from David Markus, Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer. And I want to know, did she say any of those 100 committed crimes that she knows of? If she said none of them committed crimes, then I have serious questions about her credibility.”
Smerconish replied, “In any other DOJ, I would agree with you that the idea of indictments flowing from this is preposterous.”
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for “conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors.”
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