An attorney for Jeffrey Epstein’s former accomplice and girlfriend told Republicans in Congress she would be happy to testify if President Donald Trump will let her out of prison.
In response to a subpoena, Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorney said she would only answer lawmakers’ questions if she gets them in writing first and is also granted immunity from further prosecution ― demands lawmakers would likely refuse.
“Of course, in the alternative, 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.” Maxwell’s attorney, David Markus, said in his letter to House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.).
A spokesperson for Comer immediately rejected Maxwell’s demand for immunity: “The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell’s attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony.”
Top officials from the Justice Department already interviewed Maxwell at length last week as part of President Trump’s efforts to tamp down the right-wing furor over his administration’s refusal this month to release the government’s files on the Epstein case. Trump was friends with Epstein and his name reportedly pops up repeatedly in the files.
The refusal to release the documents followed statements by top Justice Department officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, that the government would release new information about the Epstein case. Right-wing commentators have called the refusal a betrayal, and some Republicans in Congress have demanded the government cough up the material.
Asked about Maxwell’s request for clemency, the White House referred HuffPost to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Either a full pardon or a commutation of her sentence would set her free.
Trump said Monday he could give Maxwell a pardon but hadn’t been asked to do so.
“Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but I — nobody’s approached me with it. Nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it, but right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it,” Trump said.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years prison in 2022 for conspiring with Epstein to groom and sexually exploit multiple girls as young as 14 over the course of a decade starting in 1994. The Justice Department has said Epstein had more than a thousand victims.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 after being arrested a second time for crimes related to his serial sex trafficking enterprise. He was rearrested after prosecutors struck a favorable non-prosecution agreement with his attorneys in 2007 following his initial arrest. The Justice Department said in 2020 the agreement reflected “poor judgment.”
Maxwell’s attorney said she didn’t get a fair trial and that she should have been covered by the government’s original non-prosecution agreement with Epstein, adding that she became “a convenient scapegoat” after Epstein’s death. Maxwell has appealed her case to the Supreme Court.