Agreement to testify before Congress
Ghislaine Maxwell, the jailed associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to give testimony under oath before the congressional committee investigating the federal government’s handling of the Epstein files.
Committee chairman James Comer, who is leading the investigation, said Maxwell will depose virtually on 9 February, making her testimony a key development in the case.
Maxwell’s legal team has previously said she would decline to answer questions under her constitutional right to remain silent unless she is granted legal immunity.
Comer, previewing the deposition, said her lawyers have indicated she intends to plead the Fifth, referring to the US Fifth Amendment right to decline to speak to authorities.
Dispute over immunity and legal position
The announcement from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as the Trump administration continues to face scrutiny for its handling of the Epstein case.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and trafficking teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein.
In July, the committee declined to offer Maxwell legal immunity in exchange for her testimony. In August, the committee issued legal summons requiring her to submit evidence under oath.
Maxwell’s legal team said that requiring her to testify from jail without any legal immunity were non-starters.
The lawyers said she cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity, adding that speaking from prison creates security risks and undermines the integrity of the process.
House lawmakers cannot force Maxwell to waive her Fifth Amendment protections.
Continued refusal and political reaction
On Tuesday, Maxwell’s legal team said in a letter to the committee that she would continue to refuse to testify.
They said proceeding under these circumstances would amount to political theatre and a waste of taxpayer money, adding that the committee would obtain no testimony, no answers, and no new facts.
Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, appealed against the conviction to the Supreme Court last October, but the court declined to hear the former British socialite’s appeal.
Her only route to early release would be a presidential pardon, unless she persuades a federal judge in New York to vacate or amend her sentence. The White House has denied that Donald Trump is considering granting her clemency, although Trump has said he has not ruled it out.
Epstein files and Clinton subpoenas
Separately, the Department of Justice faced a deadline of 19 December last year to release all remaining Epstein files in its possession, although only a fraction has been made public.
The department has faced bipartisan criticism over the extent of redactions in the files, which are permitted only to protect victims’ identities and active criminal investigations.
Meanwhile, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over their refusal to comply with subpoenas in the Epstein investigation.
The committee had summoned both Clintons to testify about Epstein, with whom Bill Clinton has appeared in photographs in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Bill Clinton has never been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein’s abuse and has denied knowledge of his sex offending.
Lawyers for the Clintons described the subpoenas as unenforceable and said they had already provided limited information about Epstein.
The committee approved the measure with support from several Democrats. If it passes the full House of Representatives, the matter will be referred to the Department of Justice.
Source: BBC News
Also read: Lawmakers demand full release of Epstein files
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