Trump Indicates He Could Pardon Ghislaine Maxwell Amid Epstein Nightmare

President Donald Trump has left the door open to possibly pardon Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking associate -- Ghislaine Maxwell -- in a shocking reversal of what the White House promised just two weeks ago.

The commander-in-chief gathered with a gaggle of reporters on the White House lawn Friday morning ... and one journalist fired off the question that's on everyone's mind -- Will Trump consider a pardon or a commutation for Maxwell?

And Trump's response was ... well, let's just say it gives plenty of wiggle room ... check out the clip to hear 47's own words on the subject, which is a far cry from what his White House said recently.

As we reported on July 10, a senior White House official offered up a definitive statement on the Maxwell pardon rumors, telling TMZ ... "There have been no discussions or consideration of a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, and there never will be." Clearly, Trump now thinks otherwise.

Meanwhile, Todd Blanche -- the United States Deputy Attorney General -- met for a second day in a row with Maxwell in a federal lockup to find out what she knows about the Epstein case. Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison after she was found guilty in her 2021 trial of child sex trafficking in connection with Epstein. As for Epstein, he committed suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on his own sex trafficking charges.

It's unusual for a deputy attorney general to interview defendants in such cases, which are usually reserved for line prosecutors. But Trump has been rocked by all the controversy around the so-called "Epstein Files," which has been a fascination among his MAGA base and other conspiracy theorists, who just won't let it go.

And U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has also gotten swept up in the Epstein mess. You may recall ... Bondi first indicated Epstein's "client list" was sitting on her desk, but then her Dept. of Justice and the FBI changed their tune, issuing a joint memo declaring Epstein did not in fact keep such a list and reiterating that Epstein killed himself behind bars.

The backlash was immediate and intense from Trump's base ... and it hasn't died down one bit thanks to last week's bombshell article in the Wall Street Journal about Trump allegedly writing a bawdy 50th birthday message to Epstein.