The existence of the recording had not been reported previously and emerges when the Trump administration is under pressure to reveal more information related to Epstein transparently.

As of Tuesday morning (Wednesday morning AEST), the discussions over potential publication of the transcripts and the audio were ongoing.

“A final decision has not been made,” one of the officials said.

Officials are discussing the potential release of Maxwell’s interview transcript with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The recording has been transcribed and digitized, with plans to redact sensitive information such as victim names, one official stated.

Within the White House, discussions have considered whether publicizing details from the interview could reignite the Epstein controversy, especially when officials close to President Donald Trump feel the matter has largely subsided.

Two of the administration officials said if they were to release the audio and transcript, it would likely be done sooner rather than later.

Officials, frustrated by the information rollout regarding the Epstein case, are eager to manage the narrative and optics of the issue. One official indicated that the release might occur in a few weeks, subject to the decisions of senior officials within the West Wing and Justice Department.

It was not immediately clear whether the White House and DOJ were aligned on the issue.

“This is nothing more than CNN trying desperately to create news out of old news. [Trump] already addressed this issue in an interview with Newsmax, a real news outlet that routinely gets better ratings than CNN,” stated White House Communications Director Steven Cheung to CNN.

CNN has reached out to the Justice Department. A lawyer for Maxwell declined to comment.

Blanche interviewed Maxwell at the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee, Florida, last month over a period of two days. 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, including with the Supreme Court.

Last week, Maxwell was moved from a Florida federal prison to a lower-security federal prison camp in Texas, a relatively uncommon move as those convicted of sex offenses are almost always deemed too high of a risk to public safety.

As Trump has faced mounting pressure from his base for transparency, the White House has repeatedly said the DOJ should release all “credible evidence” in the Epstein files.

Asked about Blanche’s meeting with Maxwell last week, Trump again said he’d like to see everything in the files released.

“We’d like to release everything, but we don’t want people to get hurt that shouldn’t be hurt, and I would assume that was why he was there,” Trump told Newsmax on Friday.

The president said he hadn’t spoken to Blanche about his meetings with Maxwell and didn’t know when that information would be made public.

“I haven’t spoken about it, but he’s a very talented guy, Todd Blanche, and a very straight shooter, and I think he probably wanted to know, you know, just to get a feeling of it,” Trump said.

CNN previously reported that a senior Trump administration official stated that the president is not currently considering clemency for Maxwell, though he has repeatedly left the door open on the matter in recent weeks, saying he’s “allowed to do it.”

Amid the clamor for more disclosures about the case, the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday issued nearly a dozen subpoenas to the Justice Department and high-profile Democratic and Republican figures for files and information related to Epstein.

The subpoena from the GOP-led panel amounts to a show of defiance by some Republicans against House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has attempted to tamp down congressional efforts to push for the release of more information, instead arguing Trump’s administration should have time to act on the issue.