Photo: Metropolitan Detention Center
Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime former confidant of Jeffrey Epstein, exercised her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when she appears virtually before the House Oversight Committee for questioning regarding her ties to the late convicted pedophile on Monday (February 9), ABC News reports.
Maxwell, 64, is serving a 20-year prison sentence in connection with her December 2021 conviction on charges of sex trafficking, conspiracy and others linked to her role as Epstein's madam. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) confirmed that Maxwell was scheduled to appear before the committee last month, while her attorney, David Oscar Markus, warned that she would plead the Fifth as she faces an ongoing appeal of her conviction in Manhattan federal court.
“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.," Markus said via the New York Post.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) submitted seven questions he intended to ask Maxwell prior to Monday's scheduled virtual appearance including whether her attorneys' claim made in a December filing that 29 associates of Epstein entered secret non-prosecution agreements was "accurate" and if she could reveal the names of those individuals. Khanna also said he planned to ask whether she or Epstein had ever arranged, facilitated, or provided access to underage girls to President Donald Trump, who was among the notable names mentioned in the Epstein files and reported to have had a close relationship with the late convicted pedophile, which he's publicly claimed was fractured long before Epstein's arrest.
Maxwell reportedly told the Trump-appointed Justice Department that the president was "never inappropriate with anybody" during his friendship with Epstein, according to audio and transcripts obtained by the New York Post on August 22. The convicted sex offender was moved from Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in August amid conversations with the Department of Justice about Epstein and her appeal to her criminal conviction was rejected by the Supreme Court in October.