Ghislaine Maxwell, the onetime girlfriend and accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, is demanding clemency from President Donald Trump in exchange for coming clean about her ties to the convicted sex offender.
Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, sat for a closed-door interview with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Monday as part of its investigation into Epstein. The interview ended an hour after it began as Maxwell refused to answer questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“Her attorney said that she would answer questions if she were granted clemency by the president,” committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said after Maxwell pleaded the Fifth.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), a member of the oversight panel, told reporters that Maxwell’s lawyer also said his client was requesting a new retrial and that it would be inappropriate to answer questions while that process played out.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) noted that Maxwell took part in a two-day interview with the Justice Department last year with U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Why did she not plead the Fifth when Blanche asked her questions, and now she’s pleading the Fifth about things that don’t implicate her, but may implicate many of the other powerful people in the Epstein class that committed these crimes,” said Khanna.
Khanna told reporters he had submitted multiple questions to the oversight panel he hoped would be asked of Maxwell, including if there were other co-conspirators alongside her and Epstein, and if she had made any deals with the Trump White House.
Maxwell’s deposition is part of the larger investigation by the House oversight committee. The panel has released multiple batches of documents related to the Epstein files, many of which came from the committee’s subpoena of the late sex offender’s estate. The oversight committee has also conducted two interviews with former Attorney General Bill Barr and former Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta.
The drama surrounding the Epstein files is unlikely to die down any time soon.
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The New York Times on Sunday broke news that Maxwell had put up at least $1 million in the early 2000s to help former President Bill Clinton host his first Clinton Global Initiative philanthropy forum. Earlier over the weekend, the outlet also reported that Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick had business dealings with Epstein after the financier had already pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida.
The oversight inquiry has continued despite Congress voting to release the full Epstein files last year. While the DOJ has made millions of files public, Democrats have accused the Trump administration of slow-walking the release of all documents pertaining to Epstein.