By Shania Shelton, Annie Grayer and Kara Scannell

(CNN) — The Department of Justice said Tuesday it has reached out to Jeffrey Epstein’s former associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a meeting amid backlash over the administration’s handling of files related to Epstein.

“Justice demands courage. For the first time, the Department of Justice is reaching out to Ghislaine Maxwell to ask: what do you know? At @AGPamBondi’s direction, I’ve contacted her counsel. I intend to meet with her soon. No one is above the law—and no lead is off-limits,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an X post.

Blanche added in a statement posted by Attorney General Pam Bondi on social media that if “Ghislane Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say.” Blanche said he anticipates meeting with Maxwell soon.

Maxwell’s attorney told CNN they “are in discussions with the government” on the matter. “Ghislaine will always testify truthfully. We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case,” attorney David Oscar Markus said.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he didn’t know about the DOJ’s plans to reach out to Maxwell but that it “sounds appropriate,” while praising Blanche.

“I didn’t know that they were going to do it. I don’t really follow that too much. It’s sort of a witch hunt,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, repeating his efforts to put to rest the Epstein story.

But the drumbeat for transparency around the case is growing louder among Republicans on Capitol Hill, with the House Oversight Committee expected to subpoena Maxwell “as expeditiously as possible,” a committee source told CNN on Tuesday.

Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls. She has continued to appeal her conviction.

A potential meeting and testimony come on the heels of a request from the Justice Department to a federal judge to make public years-old grand jury testimony against Epstein, which took place behind closed doors. Two judges have given the department until Tuesday to provide more information on that request, including why officials are seeking the disclosure and whether Maxwell objects to it. A person close to her said she would oppose release of materials related to her and Epstein.

A judge in Maxwell’s case asked her legal team to weigh in by August 5.

A lawyer for Maxwell asked the judge for permission to review the grand jury transcripts the Justice Department has sought to unseal in its investigation.

David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s attorney, wrote in a letter to the judge, “As counsel for Ms. Maxwell, we would similarly like to review the grand jury transcripts at issue (we have not seen them and our understanding is that they have never been provided to the defense in their entirety) in order to craft a response and set out our position to the Court.”

Democrats criticized Blanche’s announcement, with Rep. Dan Goldman of New York accusing the deputy attorney general of “doing an end-run around the SDNY and its institutional policies by acting as a political agent of President Trump.”

“As Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche well knows from his lengthy tenure as a prosecutor and supervisor in the Southern District of New York, this is almost certainly not the first time the DOJ has inquired about cooperation from Ghislaine Maxwell, who, as a matter of course, would have been offered the opportunity to reduce her sentence in return for truthful and forthright information about Epstein and all others involved in the scheme,” Goldman, who also worked in the Southern District of New York’s US attorney’s office, said in a statement.

“Do not be fooled: this latest delay tactic is yet another effort to conceal the Epstein files,” he said.

The request to unseal the materials was made at Trump’s direction in the wake of a Wall Street Journal report about a 2003 birthday letter for Epstein that bore Trump’s name and an outline of a naked woman. The president has denied the letter came from him and is suing the newspaper’s publisher.

Bondi had long vowed to release as many documents in the Justice Department’s possession as possible, but in a memo earlier this month, she announced there is no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” or was murdered — and that the department does not plan to release any new documents in the matter.

Neither Tuesday’s announcement nor calls from the president to move on from the case have done much to quell demands from his MAGA base for more information on the case of the disgraced financier, which has been the subject of myriad conspiracy theories since his death by suicide in 2019.

The calls for greater transparency have threatened in recent days to drive a deeper wedge between Trump and some of his most steadfast supporters on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who supports the effort to release additional information on Epstein, told CNN that the demand for transparency is “extremely high.”

“They are getting beaten up at home in their districts,” she said of lawmakers facing constituents’ anger over the issue.

Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and influential Trump ally, suggested Blanche’s interview plans are more about mitigation of the public fallout from the administration’s botched handling of promised Epstein disclosures.

“Seems like a massive cope,” Loomer said in a text message to CNN, adding: “Why wasn’t this done on Day 1? Why didn’t they ask to meet with her before the memo was released on 4th of July weekend when they essentially said the case would be closed? Seems like this should have already taken place.”

The decision on whether to release grand jury testimony now lies with a federal judge. It’s unclear how long it will take for anything to be made public. Before ruling on the matter, the judge must consult with victims and any uncharged person discussed in the testimony, as their identities are protected under federal law.

Some conservative lawmakers have pressed for people involved in Epstein’s case to testify before Congress, including Maxwell and Bondi, even as GOP leaders have made it clear they are eager to move on from the controversy.

GOP lawmakers sound 2026 warning

Seeking to sap the momentum behind Republican Rep. Thomas Massie’s push to force a vote on an Epstein-related measure, House GOP leaders are sending lawmakers home for August recess a day earlier than initially planned.

Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team made the case to House Republicans behind closed doors Tuesday that the Trump administration needs time to deal with the Epstein issue, according to multiple sources in the room.

The message they delivered, one of the lawmakers said, was that “the administration is dealing with it,” and Johnson argued that Republicans should not play “the political games” that Democrats are employing to to force uncomfortable votes on the issue.

Many were not pleased with that call for patience. The deadlock on the issue has essentially ground House floor activity to a halt.

Lawmakers don’t see the Epstein issue going away anytime soon.

“You don’t lose your base over one single thing, but (Trump’s) eroding his base. More importantly, if we don’t take the right side of this issue, it’s going to cost us votes in the midterms,” Massie said Tuesday.

“People are becoming despondent, they’re apathetic. Why would they go vote if they gave us the House, the Senate and the White House, and the transparency and justice they were promised doesn’t happen? Why should they vote in the midterms? And I think it could be a real problem for us.”

The Kentucky Republican continued, “That’s why it would behoove the speaker to bring this to the floor. It would be in the best interest of this institution — just vote this out, give it to the Senate and let them do their thing.”

Rep. Ralph Norman agreed the issue won’t fade over the five-week break. “No, it shouldn’t die down. No. I mean, it’s — look, the American people deserve it, and there’s a lot of interest in it, and let’s just put, put everything on the table and let the let the American people be the judge,” the South Carolina Republican said.

Moments after the closed-door GOP meeting, Rep. Tim Burchett forced the House Oversight Committee to vote on the motion to subpoena Maxwell.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Alayna Treene, Sarah Ferris, Manu Raju, Alison Main, Kaitlan Collins and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

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