What happened
Ghislaine Maxwell, the former Jeffrey Epstein girlfriend and associate serving 20 years for sex trafficking, repeatedly invoked her “Fifth Amendment right to silence” Monday during a virtual deposition with the House Oversight Committee. Maxwell, appearing via video from her minimum-security prison camp in Texas, offered to talk only if she first received a pardon from President Donald Trump.
Who said what
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who first subpoenaed Maxwell in July, said it was “very disappointing” she refused to answer their “many questions” about “the crimes she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators.” Maxwell “answered no questions and provided no information about the men who raped and trafficked women and girls,” said Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), the committee’s top Democrat. “Who is she protecting?”
“Maxwell alone can explain why” Trump and former President Bill Clinton “are innocent of any wrongdoing,” her lawyer David Oscar Markus said during the hearing, and she is “prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.” Maxwell is “campaigning over and over again to get that pardon,” and Trump “has not ruled it out,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.). “That is why she is continuing to not cooperate with our investigation.”
What next?
Maxwell, who is “seeking to have her conviction overturned” in federal court, had “consistently told the committee that she wouldn’t answer questions,” The Associated Press said. But Comer “came under pressure to hold the deposition as he pressed for the committee to enforce subpoenas on Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.” The Clintons are scheduled to be deposed later this month, and Comer reiterated Monday that he would not honor their request for a public hearing.
She offered to talk only if she first received a pardon from President Donald Trump
