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Late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's former cellmate claims New York prosecutors offered to let him walk free if he agreed to implicate President Donald Trump, according to his former cellmate.
Nicholas Tartaglione, 57, a former police officer, shared a cell with Epstein when the latter was transferred to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, where Epstein died one month after being arrested, and claims the convicted pedophile told him that prosecutors offered to cut a deal if he snitched on Trump, who was serving his first presidential term at the time in July 2019.
“Prosecutors … told Epstein that if he said President Trump was involved with Esptein’s crimes he would walk free. in a petition to be pardoned,” Tartaglione claimed in a pardon application filed in July, which was obtained by the New York Post.
“Epstein told me that [lead prosecutor] Maurene Comey said that he didn’t have to prove anything, as long as President Trump’s people could not disprove it. According to Maurene Comey, the FBI were ‘her people, not his [President Trump’s],’ ” the filing states.
The documents don't specify what crimes Trump would've been implicated on. Epstein was charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy, but also suspected in several other crimes including financial misleading to money laundering and blackmail, at the time of his death.
In August, convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime confidant, reportedly told the Justice Department that President Donald Trump was "never inappropriate with anybody" during his friendship with Epstein.
“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way,” Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during their meeting one month prior, according to audio and transcripts obtained by the New York Post.
The Department of Justice previously handed over an annotated version of the Maxwell grand jury transcripts showing that "much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony -- with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses -- was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses," according to the filing via ABC News.
The Justice Department asked two New York federal judges to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases against Maxwell and Epstein, however, is not asking them to unseal the grand jury exhibits, though the attorney general is seeking additional time to consider "its position with respect to unsealing of the grand jury exhibits."
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year-sentence, was moved from Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee to Federal Prison Camp Bryan after speaking with the Department of Justice about Epstein. Federal Prison Camp Bryan typically houses nonviolent offenders and is less restrictive than the Tallahassee federal prison.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons hadn't publicly given a reason for Maxwell's relocation, however, the move was made after she met with Blanche in an effort to get immunity by providing details about Epstein.
In September, an alleged doodle and note made by Trump to Epstein in 2003 was released by House Democrats, Axios reported. The note, which was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal in July and Trump publicly denied existed, includes a drawing of a woman's body and was allegedly written in a book compiled by longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein's 50th birthday.
The book was turned over to the House Oversight Committee along with a larger tranche of documents on Monday, Rep. Robert Garcia, the panel's top Democrat, confirmed in a statement obtained by Axios.
"It's time for the President to tell us the truth about what he knew and release all the Epstein files. The American people are demanding answers," Garcia said, adding that Democrats are now "carefully reviewing the contents of the book and additional documents to determine the full extent of the implications," and "expect to release our findings to the public."
Trump threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal for its report, which he called "defamatory" and "a fake thing" in a post shared on his Truth Social account.