The president was asked today whether he would consider a pardon after Maxwell’s appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected today.

The rejection means Maxwell’s only hope for freedom would be a pardon from the president.

Trump appeared to be unaware that Maxwell’s appeal bid was knocked back when in the Oval Office.

“You know, I haven’t heard the name in so long. I can say this, that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look,” he said.

“I’ll take a look at it. I will speak to the DOJ (Department of Justice).

“I wouldn’t consider it or not consider, I don’t know anything about it.”

He then brought up Sean “Diddy” Combs, another acquaintance convicted of sex crimes.

“I have a lot of people have asked me for pardons. I call him Puff Daddy, (he) has asked me for a pardon,” Trump said.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term after being found guilty of sex trafficking a teenage girl.

Earlier this year, she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Presidents have the legal authority to pardon or grant clemency to anyone in a federal prison.

Meanwhile, Republicans in the House of Representatives have refused to swear in a newly elected Democratic congresswoman.

Typically, new representatives are sworn in the day after winning their election.

But a fortnight after winning a special election in Arizona’s 7th congressional district in a landslide, Adelita Grijalva has not been sworn in.

Democrats in the House are tying the delay to a crucial vote on the release of the Epstein files.

If 218 signatures from representatives are filed on a discharge petition, the House will have to vote on requiring the Trump administration to release all files related to Epstein.

There are currently 217 signatures on the petition, and Grijalva would be the 218th.

Since Grijalva’s election, the Republican Speaker Mike Johnson has cancelled all votes in the House.

“This is all about a continuation of the Epstein cover-up,” top Democrat Jim McGovern said.

“They’re not bringing us back primarily because they’re afraid of the discharge petition, you know, and getting the clock started to move a vote on the Epstein files.”

Grijalva said the delay was “suspicious”.

“You know, I really am not a conspiracy theorist–type of person in general,” she told MSNBC.

“I try to come up with, like, ‘What is the most plausible reason why this would be happening?’

“And respectfully, I can come up with nothing else.”

Johnson said he will swear in Grijalva when Congress returns to a regular session.

After making that promise, he declared this week a “district work period”, sending members of Congress home.