During an interview with British media personality Piers Morgan, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) advised President Donald Trump not to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice to the late Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation.

“Would you want to see Ghislaine Maxwell pardoned? Or would you want the opposite?” Morgan asked Johnson during a Wednesday episode of his show, "Piers Morgan Uncensored."

“I would never even consider it. I mean, she’s a convicted human trafficker. She was a party to this. She set it up. By her own admission, she was involved in all this. There’s no way she should ever leave prison, “ Johnson responded.

The conversation came in response to Trump's comments that he would have the Justice Department look over Maxwell's case after the Supreme Court declined to reopen it.

Didn't rule it out

Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump did not rule out a pardon, even when he was asked several times to do so.

“Well, I’ll take a look at it. I’ll speak to the DOJ,” Trump said. “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider — I don’t know anything about it. I will speak to the DOJ.”

Maxwell, 63, is a little over five years into a 20-year sentence at a minimum security prison in Texas for her role in Epstein's sex trafficking of underage girls.

Testimony during the trial said that she befriended some of the victims and enticed them to become part of Epstein's operation. Together with Epstein, she paid for some of their travel and other items and groomed them for the abuse that followed.

Perplexing

It is perplexing why Trump seems so disposed to go easy on anything related to Epstein, given that he supposedly didn't like the guy after finding out what he was doing.

He hasn't released the Epstein files despite saying he would before the election, and now he seems to want to pardon Maxwell.

It makes it look like he has something to hide despite assurances from pretty much everyone that his nose is clean.

Maybe he's just protecting friends who could be implicated, but even so, it's fuel for his detractors to keep calling him a pedophile even though there's no evidence of that.

Will the files come out?

The Epstein files could end up coming out anyway if some in Congress have their way.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is still considering whether to force a vote on a discharge petition she signed compelling the files to be released.

“My signature is on that discharge petition, and there has not been another issue where I have ever received more pressure than that one, and I’m pretty much shocked by it," she said Tuesday.