WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., said Wednesday that his panel is set to depose Ghislaine Maxwell on Feb. 9 as part of its investigation into the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Comer announced the scheduled deposition during a committee markup of resolutions to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt for defying subpoenas as part of the panel's Epstein probe.
"We need to hear from Ghislaine Maxwell," Comer said about Epstein's co-conspirator and former girlfriend, who was convicted on sex trafficking charges and sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison.
"We’ve been trying to get her in for a deposition, and her lawyers have been saying that she’s going to plead the Fifth, but we have nailed down a date, Feb. 9, where Maxwell will be deposed by this committee," he added.
Comer did not share details about the deposition, which a source familiar with the planning said will be conducted virtually. Maxwell is serving her sentence at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas. She was transferred there last year after having been held at a low-security facility in Florida.
Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, wrote in a letter to Comer on Tuesday that if the committee proceeds with its deposition, "Ms. Maxwell will invoke her privilege against self-incrimination and decline to answer questions."
"That is not a negotiating position or a tactical choice; it is a legal necessity," wrote Markus, who noted in the letter that Maxwell's "post-conviction litigation is far from over." He added, "Testimony under oath while a habeas petition is pending would risk irreparable prejudice to her constitutional claims and expose her to further criminal jeopardy."
Markus argued that continuing with a deposition under those circumstances would result in "pure political theater" and would be "a complete waste" of taxpayer dollars.
"The only certainty is a public spectacle in which a witness repeatedly invokes the Fifth Amendment," he said.
The committee was originally scheduled to depose Maxwell in August, but the deposition was postponed. Comer had said her testimony is “vital to the Committee’s efforts regarding Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, including the 2007 non-prosecution agreement and the circumstances surrounding Mr. Epstein’s death." Maxwell's lawyers said at that time that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights unless the committee granted her immunity.
After the deposition was delayed, Comer said the panel would consider its next steps after the Supreme Court decided whether it would review Maxwell’s conviction as a sex offender. In early October, the high court ultimately rejected her challenge to the criminal conviction.
As for the Clintons, the committee voted Wednesday afternoon to recommend holding them in contempt of Congress after they both failed to appear for depositions on Capitol Hill last week. Their lawyers argued that the subpoenas were "legally invalid."
The former president appeared in numerous pictures that were part of the first batch of Epstein files the Justice Department released in December. Clinton's spokesman Angel Ureña has said he had flown on Epstein’s plane for Clinton Foundation trips in the early 2000s, before Epstein was charged with any sex crimes. Clinton has denied any wrongdoing and has said he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes. He has said he cut ties with Epstein before he was accused in 2006 of having sex with a minor.
Ureña wrote in a statement Wednesday on X that both Clintons had nothing to do with Epstein "for more than 20 years."
"The Committee is voting whether to charge the Clintons with a crime that could end in their imprisonment. But we have cooperated," he said. "They just won't tell you we have because then they can't charge them."
