Ghislaine Maxwell: could talking about Epstein be her get out of jail free card?

Maxwell’s highly unusual two-day sit-down with the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche – who served as Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney before working for his justice department – came as the US president tiptoes through a political minefield related to Epstein and his own social links to the disgraced former financier.

But Blanche’s meeting – held amid rumors and denials of a pardon for Maxwell shortly before her sudden move on Friday to a Texas prison – did not just show Trump’s flagging efforts at damage control over the Epstein scandal. Maxwell is simultaneously pursuing several other strategies to be freed from her 20-year federal prison sentence.

Related: Ghislaine Maxwell is talking – but what can she tell and can she be believed?

And, some experts believe, Maxwell’s ultimate aim is probably not really revealing the whole truth and everything she knows about Epstein, Trump and other powerful figures. Instead, it is all about earning her freedom.

Maxwell’s team is pushing the US supreme court to consider her appeal, which contends that she was shielded from prosecution in Epstein’s controversial 2007 plea agreement – an argument that has been opposed by the same justice department that has now met with her.

Maxwell is also trying to make the most of a congressional subpoena, threatening to invoke her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination unless she is given immunity. Her legal team has also suggested clemency – which Trump could grant immediately.

This broad-spectrum approach, which several longtime defense attorneys said represented sound legal strategy, has prompted skepticism about whether any discussions reflect an actual desire to reveal truth. More, Maxwell’s track record of alleged lying undermines whatever truths Trump officials claim they want to reveal in highly publicized meetings.

“If I were representing her, I would be doing exactly the same thing. The supreme court petition has virtually no chance of success. The issues raised are not novel or of general relevance to other cases,” said Ron Kuby, a longtime defense attorney whose practice focuses on civil rights.

Kuby told the Guardian that the supreme court agrees to take on “only the smallest fraction” of petitions. “Filing a supreme court petition is akin to playing the lotto, you can’t win unless you play, but your likelihood of winning is slim, so it’s a last-ditch effort that defendants use when they have enough money for full due process.”

The parallel strategy of actively pursuing clemency with the Trump administration is sound because Trump could commute her sentence or issue a pardon, Kuby said. “Because these are all federal convictions, he can let her out of jail tomorrow,” he added.

As for why Maxwell would seem willing to shed light on Epstein despite a low likelihood of a positive outcome, “she has nothing to lose.

“The question isn’t ‘why would she meet with them’? She’ll do anything for people who can help with this,” Kuby said.

Related: Ghislaine Maxwell is not a victim. And if she is pardoned, it won’t be for the sake of justice | Arwa Mahdawi

Eric Faddis, a trial attorney and founding partner of the Colorado firm Varner Faddis, voiced similar sentiments about Maxwell’s strategy.

“For anyone who’s been sentenced to 20 years in prison, it would behoove them to explore all potential avenues to try and better their legal position, and it looks like that’s what Maxwell is doing here,” Faddis said.

Other legal experts agree.

“Maxwell’s attorneys are doing everything they can to keep her out of prison,” said John Day, a former prosecutor in New Mexico who founded the John Day Law Office.

The Epstein controversy swirling around Trump may prove an excellent opportunity that few could have foreseen.

“This is a moment in time that wasn’t there before, where she suddenly has an opening to try to get a change in her situation,” Day said. “Up until the Epstein case resurfaced and the Epstein-Trump issues came to the forefront of people’s attention, Maxwell was just doing her time.

“Suddenly, she is trying to make the case that she has information, and she has information that’s worth trading for, and she’s hoping, her lawyers are hoping, that somehow someone is going to decide that it’s worth giving her a break.”

Should Maxwell receive any favorable outcome, it might do little to promote truth and much to foment uncertainty.

“If there is some kind of a deal that came out of the nine hours that Todd Blanche met with her, then any information that comes out of that is always going to be seen in the context of ‘what was the deal?’” Day said.

Indeed, Trump’s handling of the Epstein files has done little but sow doubt. The Trump justice department released a memo insisting there was no Epstein client list, and decided not to release extensive case files, despite his campaign promise to do so.

This backtracking on releasing documents helped fan the flames of controversy that came after the publication of a Wall Street Journal article claiming that Trump contributed a “bawdy” letter to a birthday present for Epstein – compiled by Maxwell.

Shortly after the story ran, Trump announced that he had directed his justice department to request the unsealing of grand jury transcripts in Epstein and Maxwell’s criminal cases.

This purported push for transparency, vis-a-vis Bondi’s request for unsealing, does not appear to have quelled backlash against Trump. The Wall Street Journal on 23 July reported that Bondi told Trump his name appeared in the Epstein files on multiple occasions.

Epstein, whom prosecutors stated abused girls as young as 14, had long enjoyed the company of numerous high-profile men in his circle – among them Trump and Britain’s Prince Andrew. Epstein killed himself in jail awaiting trial six years ago.

Trump’s camp has insisted that a pardon is not in the works, with a senior administration official saying: “No leniency is being given or discussed. That’s just false. The president himself has said that clemency for Maxwell is not something he is even thinking about at this time.”

But at other times, Trump’s comments on the issue have raised eyebrows, with him saying: “I’m allowed to do it, but it’s something I have not thought about.” He has also remarked: “Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it” and that “Right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”

Top congressional Republicans are toeing the line when it comes to the idea of potential presidential relief, including the House speaker, Mike Johnson. “Well, I mean, obviously that’s a decision of the president,” Johnson said on Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. “I won’t get in front of him. That’s not my lane.”

The political benefit for Trump from a pardon – however unlikely – remains nearly nil, as it would do little to support his prior claims about wanting the truth revealed.

“The giant problem here – although what we have seen is that people are capable of believing all kinds of things if Trump says they are true – I don’t think there’s anything that Ghislaine Maxwell can say that will put any of this to rest,” Kuby said. “Certainly, the optics of giving an actual convicted child [abuser] clemency does not easily align with the right wing’s purported concern about child abuse.”