Far-right influencer Laura Loomer has issued a stark warning to President Donald Trump against pardoning convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. In a post on X, Loomer wrote: “Do not do it. I repeat. Do not do it. There will be no coming back from that.” She tagged Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, and Attorney General Pam Bondi in her message.
Loomer’s rebuke came after Trump left the door open to a pardon for Maxwell, a close associate of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. When asked by reporters on Monday whether he might use his presidential pardon powers to free Maxwell from her 20-year prison sentence, Trump said he would need to “speak to” the US justice department and “take a look at it”.
The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from Maxwell against her conviction on sex trafficking charges. The decision was welcomed by Congressman Robert Garcia, a senior Democrat on the House oversight committee, who described the court’s refusal as “correct”. Garcia also criticised the Trump administration for moving Maxwell from a Florida prison to a less restrictive facility in Texas in early August, calling the move “shameful”.
The transfer happened after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell. Audio recordings and transcripts of the meeting yielded little new information. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has faced scrutiny over its failure to release all federal documents related to Epstein, who died in 2019 awaiting trial.
Attorney General Pam Bondi was questioned about the Epstein files during Senate hearings on Tuesday. Democratic Senator Dick Durbin pressed her on why she agreed to flag records related to Trump in government-held files. Bondi refused to discuss the matter, prompting Durbin to warn she would eventually have to answer for her conduct. The exchange stemmed from a Wall Street Journal report that claimed multiple references to Trump were found in Epstein-related documents.
Trump also addressed the case of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was sentenced on Friday to four years and two months in prison on federal prostitution-related charges. Trump claimed Combs had asked him for a pardon but he had ignored the request. Combs has petitioned to serve his sentence at a low-security prison in New Jersey with a drug treatment programme, citing an addiction to painkillers.
