WASHINGTON — Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted co-conspirator of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said she would testify before Congress — but only if key demands are met, including some form of immunity.
Maxwell’s attorneys responded to the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena on Tuesday, saying they would agree to appear before Congress if the panel agreed to grant formal immunity, among other demands. Maxwell has become a person of interest after being found guilty of co-conspiring with Epstein to exploit minor girls in 2021.
Spokespeople for the Oversight Committee told the Deseret News they would respond to Maxwell’s attorney “soon,” but noted the panel “will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony.”
Along with protections, Maxwell is requesting that the interview does not occur at the correctional facility where she is serving out her sentence and that the meeting be scheduled after the Supreme Court rules on her appeal petition to review her 2021 sentencing. That petition was filed on Monday and it could take until October before the Supreme Court issues a decision.
Additionally, Maxwell and her attorneys said they wanted to review the committee’s questions ahead of the deposition to “to ensure accuracy and fairness,” according to the letter obtained by the Deseret News.
If those demands are not met, her lawyers said, Maxwell would “have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights.”
However, Maxwell left the door open for another route to testimony: A pardon from President Donald Trump.
“If Ms. Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing—and eager—to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C.,” the letter states. “She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning.”
The House Oversight Committee issued the subpoena last week requesting meeting with Maxwell at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee on Aug. 11, marking the latest escalation in the House to reveal information about Epstein’s operations.
But even with the subpoena, some Republicans say they may not believe everything she says.
“She is a liar, and she’s a dirtbag,” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who introduced the motion to subpoena Maxwell, told reporters last week. “The one thing we got holding over her head is, if we find out she lies, she goes back to her original sentence, and that’s looking at lifetime. And if she’s looking at maybe parlaying this into reducing her sentence, then we could have some leverage there.”
House GOP leadership drafted a resolution earlier this month calling for the release of the investigative materials as a way to provide Republican lawmakers with some political cover as Democrats hammer them on the subject. But that resolution is nonbinding and largely symbolic, prompting criticism from some rank-and-file members.
That anger only began to grow when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., declined to schedule a vote on any Epstein-related measure, instead saying the Trump administration needs to be given time to process credible materials for publication.
Johnson told reporters last week he supports the Oversight Committee’s motion to seek a subpoena, but echoed similar concerns about Maxwell’s credibility.
“I will note the obvious concern, the caveat that Chairman Comer and I and everyone has: Could she be counted on to tell the truth? Is she a credible witness?” Johnson said. “I mean, this is a person who’s been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable, conspiratorial acts and acts against innocent young people.”
It’s not clear how the Oversight Committee will proceed with Maxwell’s demands. Meanwhile, Maxwell met with the Justice Department last week, but the department shared little information about what comes next in its investigation.