Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, would assert her Fifth Amendment right if interviewed by the House Oversight Committee, according to a source familiar.
Comer has issued multiple subpoenas in the investigation into Epstein since July, with Maxwell being one of them. Epstein’s associate was moved to a federal prison camp in Texas earlier this year, which is deemed “low-security” and only houses women.
As such, any interview of Maxwell would have to take place in Texas, leaving the committee to pay for travel. House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told Politico that it would not be likely for him or his committee staff to interview her under those circumstances.
“Her lawyers have replied that she’s not going to answer any questions,” Comer told Politico. “She’s only going to plead the Fifth. I mean, I could spend a bunch of taxpayer dollars to send staff and members down there, and if she’s going to plead the Fifth, I don’t know that that’s a good investment.”
Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in recruiting and sex trafficking minors. Her confidant, Epstein, killed himself in a New York prison in 2019, where he was facing charges for sex trafficking. The Supreme Court rejected a request to revisit her case earlier this year.
Although she said she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right with the committee, this would not be her first interview. Maxwell was interviewed earlier this year for two days by senior Department of Justice official Todd Blanche in Tallahassee, where she was previously imprisoned.
House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) urged President Donald Trump to refrain from granting Maxwell clemency, citing a whistleblower who indicated that she plans to ask the president to commute her 20-year federal sentence.
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House Oversight has released thousands of documents in relation to the Epstein case from the DOJ and the Epstein estate, along with a transcribed interview with former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Florida U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, the latter who approved a controversial plea deal in 2008, granting immunity from all federal criminal charges to Epstein.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Maxwell’s lawyers for comment.
Kaelan Deese contributed to this article.