While still in office, in July of 2020, former President Donald J. Trump allegedly asked his office aids if Ghislaine Maxwell had asked about him, which the Daily Mail reported that Maggie Haberman wrote in her new book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.”
Haberman wrote that Trump, while in the Oval Office, allegedly asked, “You see that article in the [New York Post] today that mentioned me?” Those in the room reportedly remained silent, to which Trump continued, adding, “She say anything about me?” This set of questions came just months after Trump wished Maxwell well after her arrest during a White House news conference. During the presser, he also mentioned that he had seen Maxwell several times, particularly when he and both Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein lived in Palm Beach.
The Daily Mail asserted that this question likely stemmed from Trump’s anxieties about being implicated in any further investigations or trials due to his connection with Maxwell and Epstein. That’s because the aforementioned New York Post article had quoted Steven Hoffenberg — a former business associate of Epstein — suggesting Maxwell would be naming associates and friends of hers and Epstein’s.