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Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is phoning a friend as the administration deals with fallout over the Epstein files.

President Trump’s former personal attorney-turned-Justice Department deputy announced Tuesday that he would initiate talks with a lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice.

Left unmentioned: The lawyer, David Oscar Markus, happens to be a friend.

“I know a lot of people that have worked with you. I know a lot of people who know you very well,” Blanche told Markus last year while appearing for an hourlong sitdown on his podcast.

“I now consider you a friend and someone who I know pretty well,” Blanche added. “You are — by far, are — the best out there."

Trump has been on a collision course with much of his MAGA base after the Justice Department (DOJ) stated Epstein did not have a “client list” and confirmed his 2019 death was indeed a suicide, two flash points for conspiracists who have for years claimed the government is covering up the truth. The president has expressed increasing frustration, as many of his supporters press for more information or the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Responding to the pressure, Blanche last week signed a motion seeking to unseal grand jury transcripts from the criminal investigations into both Epstein and Maxwell.

Two judges on Tuesday set a schedule for briefing the matter, ordering the government to turn over the sealed grand jury material and make more detailed arguments by July 29. Submissions from Maxwell, Epstein’s representatives and victims are due Aug. 5. The judges promised to rule “expeditiously” afterward.

Once Blanche filed the motion, he contacted Markus.

In a statement posted to X by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, Blanche said he “communicated” with Maxwell’s counsel to determine whether she would be willing to speak with DOJ prosecutors and anticipated meeting with her in “coming days.”

“Until now, no administration on behalf of the Department had inquired about her willingness to meet with the government,” Blanche said. “That changes now.”

Asked about it in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said it sounded like an “appropriate” step.

“No, I have no concern, he’s a very talented person,” Trump said of Blanche. “He’s very smart. I didn’t know they were going do it.”

Markus confirmed the talks, saying Maxwell would “always testify truthfully” and expressing gratitude to Trump for his “commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.” He declined to comment further.

Hours later, Markus asked a judge for permission to review the grand jury transcripts so he can decide whether to support Blanche’s request to unseal them. Blanche doesn’t oppose Markus gaining access, the court filing shows.

A chance to speak with DOJ prosecutors would be a boon for Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison term for helping Epstein carry out his sex trafficking scheme. Epstein’s former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, said Monday that Maxwell “knows everything” and should be granted immunity to testify before Congress.

“She is the Rosetta Stone,” he said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.” “She knows everything. She arranged every single trip with everybody. She knows everything.”

Maxwell, meanwhile, is urging the Supreme Court to review her conviction. In the petition, Markus argued it violated a 2007 nonprosecution agreement a U.S. attorney agreed to with Epstein in exchange for him pleading guilty to Florida state charges.

In court filings last week, Solicitor General D. John Sauer pushed back that Maxwell’s case would be an “unsuitable candidate for further review.”

It’s not the only high-profile case where Markus, who teaches at University of Miami law school and hosts the “For the Defense” podcast, is on the other side of the table from Trump or his administration.

Markus represents Hillary Clinton in Trump’s lawsuit claiming she and others “maliciously conspired to weave a false narrative” of Russian collusion during his 2016 presidential bid. A federal judge dismissed the case and sanctioned Trump’s lawyers. Trump’s bid to revive the case heads to an appeals panel for oral arguments in November.

Blanche entered Trump’s world when the then-former president was indicted in Manhattan, forced to leave his cushy law firm job to take Trump on as a client. Blanche felt shunned by much of the criminal defense bar, a feeling that grew as many defense attorneys egged on the Manhattan district attorney’s prosecution on television — but not Markus.

“It cannot be that defendants like Jeffrey Epstein, defendants like even Hunter Biden, right, who — and I don’t mean any disrespect to them,” Blanche told Markus on his podcast.

“But they can have........

© The Hill