Two years before Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell in connection with a scandal that will not die, he and her defense attorney David O. Markus traded stories about surreal moments visiting clients behind bars.
The exchange took place on a June 27, 2023, episode of For the Defense, a podcast hosted by Markus, a 52-year-old Harvard Law School graduate viewed as one of the top criminal defense lawyers in Florida, an acolyte of the legendary Roy Black, who died at 80 on Wednesday.
Blanche is a 50-year-old Brooklyn Law School grad who was then on his way to becoming President Donald Trump’s lead defense lawyer in the porn-star hush-money case and the classified documents case. He could not have imagined he would soon become No. 2 in the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the podcast, Blanche recounted going to the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Lower Manhattan on Sunday, July 7, 2019, to visit a client who would change the arc of his professional career. Republican lobbyist and adviser Paul Manafort was being held in section 9 South on state fraud and tax charges, having already been tried on similar federal violations.
“What happened was a very funny story,” Blanche told Markus in the podcast. “I walked in the visiting area, and there’s three rooms when you walk in that, the attorney conference area at the MCC in Lower Manhattan. Glass windows, so the guards can observe what’s happening and they can’t hear, but they can observe. And I walk in, and I see Mr. Manafort right in the middle waiting for me. They had brought him in before I’d arrived. And to the left, when I’m facing him, is Jeffrey Epstein.”
“Sitting there,” Markus remarked. “My God.”
“And he he had just gotten arrested, and he had a bail argument the very next day in front of Judge Berma,” Blanche continued. “And there were two lawyers there visiting with him, presumably getting ready for that argument. And then I looked to the right, and to the right is El Chapo. “
The lawyers laughed.
Blanche continued, “And he was sitting there with, sitting there with his, a woman who was one of his, you, legal team, I don’t know whether she was a lawyer or paralegal. And so I remember thinking to myself, that, and I thought to myself, hundreds times, that this a crazy life, right?”
There was more laughter.
Blanche added, “I mean, I went to night law school, you know, I worked during the day, you know, [and] here I am, sitting in in this prison on a Sunday morning. My wife went to Little Italy to wait for me so we could have lunch afterwards. And then I see El Chapo. And then I see Mr. Epstein. And then I see Paul Manafort.”
Markus marveled, “What a crazy story. And it’s true. Like, people don’t realize how surreal are our job is and what we do. Just being in the jail with Manafort himself was probably surreal enough, and then you have Epstein and El Chapo booking you. It’s nuts.”
Markus then offered a tale of his own.
“I don’t think I’ve told this story before on the podcast, but, I represented Ghislaine Maxwell on appeal for her bail, and I went and visited her once at MDC (Metropolitan Detention Center) in Brooklyn,” he began. “That jail’s also insane and highly secure and awful for reasons we can discuss it another time. But you know, I went on a weekend also and got in there, and because of what happened with Epstein, there was a crew that followed Ghislaine around wherever she went with a camera, 24/7.”
Epstein committed suicide in his cell at the MCC a month and three days after Blanche saw him. Prison officials were apparently seeking to ensure she did not suffer the same fate.
“They had a handheld camera,” Markus continued. “Even when I was meeting with her in the little room, they sat outside the room with a camera.. I had never experienced anything like it, and it was surreal... These stories are one of the reasons I like doing this podcast, is because I get to speak with people like you who have these incredible, surreal stories.”
The two lawyers had a shared story to top them all on Thursday. Deputy Attorney General Blanche arrived at the U.S. Attorney’s office in Tallahassee, Florida, to meet with Markus and his client, Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year term after her conviction for sex trafficking. She likely knows all the secrets and may be seeking to parlay them into a presidential pardon.
Blanche said nothing to the press as he entered with a security detail. Markus paused for a moment on the sidewalk outside.
“We’re looking forward to a productive day,” he said.
Afterward, Markus said the meeting had indeed been “productive.” He reported that his client “answered all the questions truthfully, honestly and to the best of her ability.” He did not say what the questions were or why anybody should believe her after her many lies.
Markus and Maxwell were expected to be back on Friday for what Blanche posted on X would be a second day of interviews.
“The Department of Justice will share additional information about what we learned at the appropriate time,” Blanche wrote.
Maybe we will hear it on a future podcast.
