Ghislaine Maxwell refuses to cooperate with House Epstein probe, to invoke Fifth Amendment
BRYAN, TEXAS: Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, will not cooperate with a House probe into Epstein and how the Department of Justice handled his case.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence on related charges, and House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said her lawyers informed him that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights if called to speak with congressional investigators.
Ghislaine Maxwell refuses to cooperate with House probe
Ghislaine Maxwell has refused to answer questions from congressional investigators about Jeffrey Epstein and the DOJ's handling of his activities.
Committee Chair James Comer told Politico, “Her lawyers have replied that she’s not going to answer any questions. She’s only going to plead the Fifth. I mean, I could spend a bunch of taxpayer dollars to send staff and members down there, and if she’s going to plead the Fifth, I don’t know that that’s a good investment.”
The committee had subpoenaed Maxwell in July. She had at one point offered to cooperate -- provided she was granted immunity from further proceedings and received questions in advance, conditions Comer rejected.
One of Maxwell's lawyers, David Oskar Markus, signed a letter that month stating Maxwell "will have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights" if her conditions were not met.
Ghislaine Maxwell denied Trump's presence at Epstein's home
Following the subpoena by the House, Maxwell gave an interview with the Justice Department, speaking with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
During this interview, she denied ever seeing Donald Trump at Epstein's house, claiming their relationship was only casual.
In an interview transcript, Maxwell said, “I think Trump and Epstein were friendly like people are in social settings. I don’t—I don’t think they were close friends or I certainly never witnessed the president in any of—I don’t recall ever seeing him in Epstein’s house, for instance.”
She also defended Trump's behavior, saying, “I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody.”
Shortly afterward, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security facility in Texas where she received special privileges: private meetings with visitors, eating alone in her cell, a security escort to the gym, and showering after other inmates.
Recently released Epstein emails contradict Ghislaine Maxwell's testimony to DOJ
Recent disclosures of Epstein's emails by the House Oversight Committee present a conflicting account to the one Maxwell gave to the DOJ concerning her relationship with Trump.
The committee's recent emails reveal that Epstein and Maxwell discussed how Trump was frequently present at Epstein's home. This is believed to be the most likely reason Maxwell refused to cooperate with Congress.
By invoking the Fifth Amendment, she will not have to answer questions about the new revelations in the committee's e-mails that reference her and the former president, and she will not have to explain why her statements to the DOJ appear to be untrue.
