A congressional panel is delaying convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s testimony because it will not meet Maxwell’s demand for immunity.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) sent a letter to Maxwell’s attorneys Friday rejecting her request for full immunity and postponing her schedule August 11 testimony as negotiations continue.
“Regarding your requested conditions, the Committee is willing to continue to engage in good faith negotiations,” Comer wrote to Maxwell’s attorney David Markus.
“However, the Committee is unwilling to grant you congressional immunity,” Comer added.
“Further, while the Committee is unwilling to send you questions in advance, the Committee will continue its long-standing practice of engaging in forthright and detailed discussions about scoping.”
In exchange for her testimony, Maxwell asked for immunity, a different location than her Tallahassee correctional facility, questions ahead of time, and a scheduled date after the Supreme Court handles her appeal of her 2021 sex trafficking conviction. She is prepared to invoke her Fifth Amendment right and decline to answer questions if her conditions are not met.
Her attorneys have asserted that she would be able to testify freely if President Trump grants her clemency despite her highly scrutinized, heinous crimes. Maxwell did not testify during her criminal trial, a decision her attorneys have attributed to psychological turmoil because of poor jail conditions.
The Supreme Court will consider Maxwell’s petition on September 29 and Comer said he is willing to delaying her testimony until after that date. Maxwell is currently serving a 20 year prison sentence after her conviction on federal sex trafficking charges in 2021 for her role as longtime accomplice of deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein died in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. He was already a convicted sex offender in Florida and spent many years living in the U.S. Virgin Islands after leaving jail.
Maxwell met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July and spent a few hours answering questions about her involvement with Epstein. Blanche reportedly granted her partial immunity so she could answer freely.
The Trump administration’s interest in Maxwell comes as it attempts to limit the fallout from its decision not to release the government’s files on Epstein. In doing so, the administration determined Epstein did not have a “client list” and did not blackmail global elites he was associated with. Controversially, the administration concluded that Epstein killed himself in his jail cell and released jail footage to defend its assessment. Epstein’s death has long been the subject of speculation because of its timing and his ties to powerful people in politics, entertainment, and business.
For 15 years, Trump and Epstein were pals in the 1990s and 2000s before Epstein became a registered sex offender. Although details of Trump’s relationship with Epstein were already well known, their friendship has received fresh scrutiny because of Trump’s handling of the Epstein files. Trump has adamantly dismissed the significance of the files after promising during the 2024 campaign to release them.
The president is suing the Wall Street Journal because of its reporting on a letter he allegedly wrote to Epstein for his 50th birthday. Trump has denied the letter’s authenticity and strongly criticized the Journal’s story on it.
MAGA rallied around Trump because of the Journal’s reporting after an unusually long backlash from Trump’s acolytes due to the administration’s decision not to release the Epstein files. The Journal subsequently reported that Trump’s name is one of many high-profile ones in the Epstein documents, but Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing.