FILE PHOTO: Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing in Manhattan Federal Court, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S. July 14, 2020 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg/File photo

By Luc Cohen, Andrew Goudsward and Jack Queen

(Reuters) -Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, told a top Justice Department official in July that she never saw President Donald Trump in an "inappropriate setting," according to a transcript of an interview released on Friday.

"I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way," Maxwell said, according to the transcript of her two-day interview last month with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. "The President was never inappropriate with anybody."

Maxwell also told Blanche that she was not aware of any "client list" of Epstein's. Epstein's friendships with wealthy and powerful individuals have fueled conspiracy theories that others were involved with his crimes, but no one other than he and Maxwell have been charged with crimes.

The Justice Department's publication of the interview comes as Trump has faced criticism from his conservative base of supporters and congressional Democrats over the Justice Department's decision not to release the files from its Epstein investigation.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. He had pleaded not guilty.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after her 2021 sex trafficking conviction. Prosecutors said she recruited underage girls for Epstein to abuse during encounters that began as massages and then escalated into unwanted sexual activity. She has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.

Trump knew Epstein socially in the 1990s and early 2000s. During the 2021 trial of Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier's longtime pilot, Lawrence Visoski, testified that Trump flew on Epstein's private plane multiple times. Trump has denied flying on the plane.

Maxwell told Blanche she never saw Trump receive a massage.

"As far as I'm concerned, President Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me," Maxwell said, according to the transcript. "And I just want to say that I admire his extraordinary achievement in becoming the President now."

(Reporting by Christian Martinez, Luc Cohen, Andrew Goudsward and Jack Queen; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Noeleen Walder and Diane Craft)