House panel won't give Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell immunity
That statement came shortly after Maxwell's lawyer told the committee in a letter that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to testify under a subpoena issued by the panel last week unless a set of conditions were agreed upon in advance.
Those conditions include a grant of immunity from prosecution for her testimony, being given any questions in advance, being questioned outside of prison, and appearing only after her bid to have an appeal of her conviction is resolved by the Supreme Court, her attorney David Oscar Markus wrote.
Markus also said, however, that if "Ms. Maxwell were to receive clemency" from President Donald Trump — who could either pardon her or commute her 20-year prison term — "she would be willing — and eager — to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C."
An Oversight spokesperson said, "The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell's attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony."
Maxwell, 63, was convicted at trial of crimes related to procuring underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
Members of Congress and others are demanding more information about Epstein and Maxwell after backlash sparked by the Justice Department's refusal earlier in July to release investigative files in Epstein's case, despite prior promises to do so.
As the Justice Department "undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to your and Mr. Epstein's cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government's enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein," Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., told Maxwell in a letter last week.
"In particular, the Committee seeks your testimony to inform the consideration of potential legislative solutions to improve federal efforts to combat sex trafficking and reform the use of non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations," wrote Comer.
Maxwell spoke for hours over two consecutive days this month with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who sought that meeting after saying he was interested in asking Maxwell what she knew about potential other abusers of girls and women connected to Epstein.
The Justice Department granted limited immunity to Maxwell for that interview.
Trump on Tuesday elaborated on a statement he made the previous day, when he said he cut ties with his then-friend Epstein in the mid-2000s because, "he stole people who worked for me" after being warned against doing so.
Asked Tuesday aboard Air Force One if some of those workers were young women, Trump replied, "Well, I don't want to say, but everyone knows the people that were taken."
"People were taken out of the spa, hired by" Epstein, Trump said, referring to the spa at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
"I told him, I said, 'Listen, we don't want you taking our people, whether it was spa or no spa,'" said Trump,.
"And he was fine. And then not long after that, he did it again," Trump said of Epstein. "And I said, 'Out of here.'"
One of Epstein's best-known accusers, Virginia Giuffre, said that Maxwell recruited her as a teenager when Giuffre was working at the Mar-a-Lago spa.
Trump on Tuesday said of Guiffre, "I think that was one of the people here. He stole her."
Giuffre was abused by Epstein for two years after she left Mar-a-Lago and began working for the sex offender. She died by suicide earlier this year.
Trump also said Tuesday that defendants in his recent $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and others over an article about him and Epstein "want to settle" the case pending in Miami federal court.
Trump is suing media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Murdoch's News Corp, Dow Jones & Co., and two reporters over the Journal story that said Trump sent Epstein a "bawdy" letter in 2003 to mark Epstein's 50th birthday. News Corp owns Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal.
The president denies writing that letter.
On Monday, Trump's lawyers asked a judge to order Murdoch to sit for a deposition in the case within 15 days, citing the fact that he is 94 years old and "has suffered from multiple health issues throughout his life, is believed to have suffered recent significant health scares."
"These factors weigh heavily in determining that Murdoch would be unavailable for in-person testimony at trial," Trump's attorneys said in their motion.
On Tuesday, Trump said, "I would have assumed that Rupert Murdoch controls [the Journal], but, you know, maybe does, maybe doesn't."
"They are talking to us about doing something, but we'll see what happens. Maybe they would like us to drop that, so we'll see," he said. "They want to settle."
CNBC has requested comment from Dow Jones about Trump's claim.
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