Washington — Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is appearing virtually Monday for a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and is expected to invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Maxwell’s deposition comes as part of lawmakers’ investigation into the federal government’s handling of Epstein’s case. But Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican, said last month that Maxwell’s lawyers had “made it clear” that she would plead the Fifth and refuse to answer questions.
“I hope she changes her mind because I want to hear from her,” he said during the Jan. 21 hearing.
Maxwell was convicted of federal sex-trafficking charges in 2021 for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minor girls with Epstein. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The expected lack of answers from Maxwell stands in contrast to an interview that she participated in with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July. The interview spanned two days, and Maxwell answered questions about her relationship with Epstein and others in his orbit.
At the time of the interview, Maxwell had been serving her sentence at a low-security federal correctional institution in Tallahassee, Florida. But shortly after meeting with Blanche, she was moved to a minimum-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas. No reason was given for Maxwell’s transfer.
Prosecutors put Maxwell at the center of Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring and said that for roughly a decade, she helped him recruit, groom and abuse victims who were under the age of 18. She shows up extensively in records released by the Justice Department in recent months under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The law, passed by Congress and signed by President Trump in November, required the Justice Department to make public all of its material related to its investigations into Epstein and Maxwell.
As part of its own probe of Epstein’s case, the Oversight Committee has demanded documents from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate. It also issued subpoenas to a slew of former attorneys general and FBI directors, as well as former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
While the Clintons initially rebuffed the demands for their testimony, calling the subpoenas “invalid and legally unenforceable,” they agreed to appear for depositions later this month after facing a contempt of Congress vote.
