Washington DC - A top Department of Justice official was meeting on Thursday with Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned accomplice of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as President Donald Trump struggles to tamp down a furor over his handling of the explosive case.

The former British socialite is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in 2021 of recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial in his own sex trafficking case.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche – Trump's former personal lawyer for his hush money trial and two federal criminal cases – was interviewing Maxwell at a courthouse in Tallahassee, Florida, CNN, NBC, and the Tallahassee Democrat newspaper said.

"If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say," Blanche said on Tuesday. "No one is above the law – and no lead is off-limits."

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Trump was once a close friend of Epstein, and The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the president's name was among hundreds found during a DOJ review of the so-called "Epstein files," even if there was no indication of wrongdoing.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the report "fake news" and said Trump had long ago broken with Epstein and "kicked him out of his [Florida] club for being a creep."

Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit against the Journal last week after it reported that he had penned a sexually suggestive letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.

Maxwell (63) is the only former Epstein associate convicted in connection with his activities, which right-wing conspiracy theorists allege included trafficking young models for VIPs.

The meeting with Maxwell marks another attempt by the Trump administration to defuse anger among the Republican president's own supporters over what they have long seen as a cover-up of sex crimes by Epstein, a wealthy financier with high-level connections.

Epstein was found hanging dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges that he sexually exploited hundreds of victims at his homes in New York and Florida.