WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee has shelved plans to depose convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator and confidant, after Maxwell informed the committee that she planned to plead the Fifth.
The Committee had intended to travel to Texas, where Maxwell is being held in a federal prison camp, to conduct the interview. But in an interview with Politico, Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said he is re-thinking those plans because of Maxwell’s decision not to answer any of the committee’s questions.
“Her lawyers have replied that she’s not going to answer any questions,” Comer told Politico. “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.”
A spokesperson for the Oversight Committee confirmed the chairman’s remarks to NBC News.
Comer said the committee will not entertain Maxwell’s request after she said she would only answer questions if she were granted immunity and given the questions in advance. She also said she would not answer questions until the appeals in her case were resolved.
NBC News reached out to a lawyer for Maxwell for comment about Comer's remarks.
Separately, Comer told NBC News on Friday that his panel is still working to depose former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, accusing them of giving Republicans "the runaround."
Comer said he just wants to learn what they may know about Epstein and his crimes.
“I’m not accusing them of any wrongdoing. ... But Trump has answered a gazillion questions about it, and we’ve never heard from Clinton," he said.
Maxwell was already interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over two days in July. The Justice Department released a full transcript of that interview the following month.
The Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to Maxwell seeking her testimony in July. Both the subpoena and Blanche's interview came as the Trump administration faced unusual scrutiny from its base over its handling of files in the Epstein case.
The pressure hasn't abated. Congress voted nearly unanimously this week to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. President Donald Trump signed the bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, into law after previously opposing it.
The Trump administration on Friday filed a motion to have Epstein-related grand jury records from Florida unsealed, citing the new law.
“In light of the Act’s clear mandate, the Court should authorize the Department of Justice to release the grand jury transcripts and lift any preexisting protective orders that would otherwise prevent public disclosure,” the motion filed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and Blanche reads.
Victim-related and other identifying information should be redacted where allowed under the act, it states. The department asks for an expedited ruling because the act gives it 30 days to release such information.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges for recruiting and grooming teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Epstein died by suicide, while in jail awaiting trial, in 2019.
Days after her interview with Blanche, Maxwell was transferred to a less restrictive, women-only prison. As NBC News reported this month, she has told friends and family in emails she is "much happier" in the new facility and Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said a whistleblower provided evidence that she is receiving favorable treatment there.
The whistleblower also said that Maxwell is in the process of requesting that Trump commute the balance of her sentence. The White House has said it “does not comment on potential clemency requests," noting that Trump has said multiple times that he has not thought about pardoning Maxwell.
