Ghislaine Maxwell says she is willing to testify, under these conditions
Ghislaine Maxwell says she is willing to testify before Congress on what she knows about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but the testimony would be on her terms.
Jeffrey Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, says she is willing to testify before Congress on what she knows about the disgraced financier who died in jail in 2019, but she has conditions.
Maxwell expressed her willingness through a July 29 letter from her lawyer, David Markus, to Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 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.
However, Maxwell said in the letter that the apparent arrangements for her testimony – speaking from prison and without first securing immunity – "are non-starters."
"(W)e would like to find a way to cooperate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established," the letter says.
The letter comes after Maxwell spoke with Justice Department officials over two days last week. The department granted Maxwell a limited form of immunity to secure her participation in that interview, according to ABC News and NBC News.
Those talks followed weeks of persistent outrage from politicians and the public over the department's announcement in early July that it wouldn't release its files on Epstein.
The Trump administration and Congress have turned to Maxwell in recent days as a potential source of transparency and accountability when it comes to any other Epstein co-conspirators who may have been involved in a sex-trafficking ring. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. He was previously convicted in 2008 of two Florida prostitution offenses, one involving minor victims.
A federal jury found Maxwell guilty in 2021 of trafficking a minor to Epstein for sexual abuse. She is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence and has an appeal pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court could decide in September whether it will hear Maxwell’s appeal.
Maxwell asked Comer to schedule any testimony from her for after the Supreme Court has addressed her appeal and after a separate court appeal she is planning is resolved. She is also requiring the House committee to provide its questions to her in advance, saying that arrangement will let her prepare and identify documents that could corroborate her answers.
Alternatively, Maxwell indicated, she is willing, "and eager," to testify before Congress if President Donald Trump grants her clemency, according to the letter. Trump has the power to pardon Maxwell or to commute her sentence.