Ghislaine Maxwell, the late Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator, says she is willing to testify before Congress on what she knows about the disgraced financier if she is granted a pardon. Epstein died in jail in 2019 by suicide.
A letter from Maxwell’s attorney David Markus on Tuesday to Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, pushed for her clemency so she can “testify openly and honestly” about Epstein. Comer issued a subpoena last week to secure Maxwell’s testimony through a deposition on Aug. 11 at a federal correctional facility in Tallahassee, Florida.
Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and other charges in 2021. Prosecutors said that from 1994 to 2004, Maxwell worked together with Epstein to identify girls, groom them, and then transport them to Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and other locations, where they were then sexually abused.
Markus said Maxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment right and decline to testify unless the committee agreed to grant her immunity and interview her outside prison: “Ms. Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity. Nor is a prison setting conducive to eliciting truthful and complete testimony.”
Markus also asked the committee to provide questions in advance and postpone the interview until after the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take up Maxwell’s appeal of her conviction: “Of course, in the alternative, if Ms. Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing—and eager—to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C. She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning.”
The letter comes after Maxwell and her lawyer met last week with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over two days last week. Maxwell answered questions for about nine hours over two days after being granted a limited form of immunity to secure her participation in that interview, according to NBC News. Blanche has not released any information about their conversation but says he will do so at the proper time. At the time, Maxwell’s attorney Markus said that they did not ask for a pardon and one was not offered. However, Markus said it is no secret Maxwell is seeking “relief” from her 20 year prison sentence.
On Monday, President Trump said that while no one had approached him about a pardon for Maxwell, he did have the power to grant one. However a spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee ruled out the idea of granting Maxwell immunity: “The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell’s attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony.”
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