Fifth Amendment to be invoked
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, intends to invoke her right to remain silent during questioning by the US House Oversight Committee, according to her lawyer.
Maxwell is expected to appear virtually for Monday’s closed-door deposition from the Texas prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
“I can confirm that she will take the 5th,” Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Markus told the BBC on Sunday, referring to the right to avoid self-incrimination outlined in the Fifth Amendment of the US constitution.
Instead, Maxwell will read “a prepared statement at the outset of the deposition”, Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said.
Conviction and pardon request
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for her role in luring underage girls for Epstein, her former boyfriend, to exploit. Epstein died in prison in 2019. She is seeking a pardon from Donald Trump and has been accused of lying to federal officials.
Planned questions on co-conspirators
In a letter addressed to Oversight Committee chairman James Comer, a Republican, Khanna said he plans to ask Maxwell about a court document she filed last year stating that there were “four named co-conspirators” and 25 others who were not indicted as part of the Epstein investigation.
He also plans to ask about her and the deceased financier’s “social relationship” with Donald Trump, and whether the US president ever discussed a potential pardon for Maxwell with her defence team.
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, with whom he says he severed contact decades ago, and has not been accused of any crimes by Epstein’s victims.
Dispute over prior cooperation
Khanna said Maxwell’s decision not to answer questions from the Oversight Committee “appears inconsistent with Ms Maxwell’s prior conduct, as she did not invoke the Fifth Amendment when she previously met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to discuss substantially similar subject matter”.
According to a justice department transcript of that meeting in July, Maxwell told Blanche that she did not witness any inappropriate conduct by Donald Trump or former US President Bill Clinton and that a rumoured Epstein “client list” does not exist.
Delayed deposition and document release
Monday’s deposition was originally scheduled for last August but was postponed after a request from Maxwell’s lawyers to await a Supreme Court ruling related to her case.
The testimony comes as the US Department of Justice has released millions of pages of new files from its investigation into Epstein after a law compelling their release was passed by Congress last year.
Members of Congress will be allowed to view unredacted versions of the nearly three million pages in person at the Department of Justice starting on Monday, according to CBS.
Survivors call for transparency
A group of Epstein survivors released a video on Sunday calling for further transparency around redactions and certain unreleased files.
Blanche has rejected accusations of a cover-up, saying previously that claims of a hidden cache of information being withheld by the justice department are unfounded.
Source: BBC News
Also read: DOJ releases Epstein files as Trump urges nation to move on
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