Ghislaine Maxwell to testify to Congress in Epstein investigation

Ghislaine Maxwell, a prison cellmate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to testify under oath before a congressional committee investigating the federal government’s handling of Epstein’s case.

James Comer, chairman of the committee leading the inquiry, said Maxwell will be sworn in virtually on February 9.

Maxwell’s legal team has previously said she would refuse to answer questions under her constitutional right to remain silent unless she was granted legal immunity.

“Her attorneys have always said she was going to plead the Fifth Amendment,” Cuomo said during pretrial testimony, referring to the U.S. Fifth Amendment right to refuse to speak to authorities.

The announcement by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as the Trump administration continues to come under intense scrutiny for its handling of the Epstein case.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and trafficking teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.

In July, the committee refused to grant Maxwell legal immunity in exchange for her testimony.

In August, the committee issued a legal subpoena to Maxwell, requiring her to submit evidence under oath.

Maxwell’s legal team said requiring her to testify from jail, without any legal immunity, was “unworkable”.

Lawyers said she “cannot risk further exposure of the crime in a political environment without formal immunity” because speaking from prison “would create a real security risk and undermine the integrity of the process”.

House members cannot force Maxwell to give up his Fifth Amendment protections.

Maxwell’s legal team said in a letter to the committee on Tuesday that she would continue to refuse to testify.

“Put plainly, proceeding with litigation under these circumstances serves no purpose other than pure political theater and a complete waste of taxpayer dollars,” the attorneys wrote. “The committee will not obtain any testimony, any answers, and will not obtain new facts.”

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and appealed his conviction to the Supreme Court last October, but the Supreme Court refused to hear the former British socialite’s appeal.

Her only way to get out of prison early is a presidential pardon, unless she can convince a federal judge in New York to vacate or modify her sentence. The White House denied that Trump was considering granting her clemency, but Trump also said he would not rule it out.

Additionally, December 19 was the deadline for the Justice Department to release all remaining Epstein files in its possession. Only a small part of it has been made public so far.

The department has been criticized by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for extensive redactions in the documents, which the law allows only to protect victims’ identities and active criminal investigations.

Meanwhile, House committees are also meeting to discuss the refusal of former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, to appear before a panel to answer questions related to the Epstein investigation.

The commission said it was considering contempt of court charges against the pair.