Epstein's former lawyer: Ghislaine Maxwell should get immunity in exchange for secrets
Jeffrey Epstein's former lawyer has suggested that the sex-trafficking financier's only convicted accomplice should be granted immunity from further prosecution in exchange for coming clean in front of Congress.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 63, is the only associate held criminally or civilly liable in connection with the allegations against Epstein. In 2016, she sat for a deposition in a civil lawsuit, in which she denied recollection of nearly two dozen flights on Epstein's private jet with an underage Virginia Giuffre, who would go on to become the trafficking duo's most outspoken accuser. Epstein's flight logs showed Giuffre and Maxwell on the plane at the same time 23 times before she turned 18, Fox News Digital reported previously.
Giuffre died of suicide earlier this year.
"[Maxwell] knows everything," Alan Dershowitz, a former attorney for Epstein, told Fox News' Shannon Bream on "Fox News Sunday." "She is the Rosetta Stone."
An unidentified friend of Maxwell's said in a recent interview with the Daily Mail that she would be open to testifying before Congress. Maxwell's attorney declined to confirm or deny the reporting.
"If she were just given use immunity, she could be compelled to testify," Dershowitz said. "I'm told that she actually would be willing to testify, and there'd be no reason for her to withhold any information. So I don't see any negative in giving her the kind of use immunity that would compel her to testify. So she ought to be summoned in front of a congressional committee."
The comments come days after federal authorities said they would ask a federal judge to unseal secret grand jury materials in an attempt to shed more light on Epstein's criminal enterprise. Dershowitz, however, warned that most of the material of interest to the public is not in the grand jury materials, but in sealed court documents, some of which he has already seen.
He cautioned, however, that not all the allegations leveled at people in Epstein's orbit would be credible.
"As long as there's nothing redacted about the accuser's lack of credibility, then the public has the right to make its own decision," he said. "Just because somebody's name is mentioned doesn't really mean very much."
Under federal law, use of immunity is a legal protection that prevents a witness' testimony or any evidence drawn from it from being used to prosecute them criminally, so long as they tell the truth.
In 2021, more than two years after Epstein's death in custody while awaiting his own trial, Maxwell was convicted of helping him traffic teen girls. She received a 20-year sentence and has appealed her case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
"She arranged every single trip with everybody," Dershowitz said. "She knows everything."
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USA Today
21 minutes ago
- USA Today
Republicans in Congress head home to angry voters. So much for summer break.
The Jeffrey Epstein case has grown into a full-blown problem for Republicans who were already failing Americans. And that feels like a lose-lose scenario as 2026 midterm elections loom. What are you doing during your summer vacation? U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson apparently plans to spend his six-week break trying to get his story straight about the Epstein files fiasco. That's a daunting challenge for the Republican from Louisiana, who has flip-flopped from calling for "transparency" on the issue to sending the House home early on July 22 to shut down Republican attempts to release those files. But that's life when you unconditionally surrender the Article I powers that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress as a coequal branch of government to a scandal-prone presidency held by Donald Trump. If Johnson's vacation were a scary summer movie, we'd have to call it 'I Know What You Did With the Epstein Files.' 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He helped pass Trump's budget bill, which slashes health care for the working poor while offering short-term tax relief for some in return for permanent tax cuts for America's wealthiest people. He did that as well with Trump's "rescission" package, which canceled federal funding that Johnson's own House had previously approved. He and Trump were looking forward to a victory lap on all that, despite consistent polling that shows a majority of American voters don't care for it at all. But the scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, who has been dead for six years, will not pass away. Trump exploited conspiracy theories on the reelection campaign trail about his old cruising buddy, a convicted pedophile who died in prison in 2019 during Trump's first term while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. 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Americans are clearly unhappy with Trump's Republican regime Republicans are hitting the road with a story that isn't selling well. A July 23 Fox News poll found that 67% of American voters think Trump's administration has not been transparent about Epstein, including 60% of the Republicans surveyed and 56% of Trump's so-called MAGA supporters. And then there's this: Fox News found that 4 out of 5 people in the survey said they were following the Epstein case. We're closing in on the end of July – vacation season – and these people are tuned all the way in on this. Trump's budget bill was also underwater in the poll, with 58% disapproving and 39% in support. That makes for testy town halls, if the Republicans dare to hold them in the next six weeks. And that feels like a lose-lose scenario with the 2026 midterm elections looming ever larger. Face your angry constituents and be ready to go viral on social media, exactly the kind of things that would-be opponents mine for campaign commercials. Or duck and cover and get branded a coward, exactly the kind of thing that would-be opponents exploit for campaign commercials. No matter which way Republicans go, at home or in Washington, they should first ask themselves: Does Trump care about how any of this impacts me and my future in politics, or is he only interested in protecting himself? I think they already know the answer. Trump is – now, in the past, in the future, always – looking out only for himself. That prompts two more questions. Why is he working so hard to keep the Epstein files secret? And do you really want to be on the record helping him with that secrecy if the files are finally released? Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here.
2 hours ago
The White House wants more states to redraw House maps to help GOP. Democrats are readying a fight
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CNBC
2 hours ago
- CNBC
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