Ghislaine Maxwell plays hardball with lawmakers on giving Epstein testimony
It comes following a recent vote by a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee to subpoena Maxwell amid mounting pressure from House Republicans to release materials related to the larger Epstein investigation. Full committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) subsequently sent a letter to Maxwell, who is in prison, compelling her to speak with the committee on Aug. 11.
Maxwell's attorneys indicated last week she was declining to cooperate with the subpoena. But in a letter obtained Tuesday by POLITICO, the lawyers noted their client now wants to reach a compromise to facilitate her testimony.
Among her asks is to be granted immunity from further criminal proceedings; to receive committee investigators' questions in advance of the interview; to delay the deposition until after her appeals; and to relocate the deposition outside the prison where Maxwell is held.
Otherwise, the attorneys wrote, Maxwell will invoke her Fifth Amendment right.
'We remain open to working with the Committee to find a path forward that respects her constitutional rights and enables her to assist the American people and the Committee in its important oversight mission,' the attorneys wrote.
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said the panel would soon respond to Maxwell's request but would not consider granting her Congressional immunity.
Many House Republicans have been pushing Comer and GOP leaders to make the interview with Maxwell as public as possible. According to three Republicans with direct knowledge of the talks, members worry the closed-door setting — and the possibility of granting her some level of immunity — would only increase distrust among their constituents who've been pressing for answers relating to Epstein's activities.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
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He has populist instincts that he displayed for quite some time before he became Trump's vice president. You're right about Trump having political instincts that these potential candidates are going to have to react to and adjust to on the fly. Being nimble in interviews and messaging is always important, but it's going to be especially important in a landscape where Trump is the dominant figure in the party. While he won't be on the ballot, he is very likely to have interest in steering things. WOLF: How do you group the potential field? There are senators, there are governors, there are people in the administration. BRADNER: I think that's the right starting point. People in the administration, which you can kind of divide into two groups, right? Vance and Rubio are by far the best known and are the ones that I have heard from Republican voters about the most clearly. There are some other folks, like Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and potentially others who are former governors, are Trump allies and have their own ambitions, but don't carry the sorts of advantages that Vance and Rubio have. Then there's a group of governors, and to me, this is potentially the most interesting group, because they have their own agendas outside of Washington and are less tied to whatever's going on in the White House or on Capitol Hill on any given day. Youngkin, the Virginia governor, ran an impressive campaign in 2021, and because Virginia does not allow governors to run for second terms, he is just a few months away from leaving office, which means he will be a popular Republican elected in a Democratic-leaning state who now is out of a job and has all day to campaign. 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BRADNER: Both are clearly aligning themselves with Trump's most popular policies, which is strict immigration enforcement, border security and ramping up deportations. For DeSantis, building 'Alligator Alcatraz' was a clear example of political maneuvering to be seen publicly as having Trump's back. Both of them are absolutely on the 2028 landscape, and DeSantis, in particular, appears to have smoothed over the tensions that remain from his 2024 run. DeSantis is one to watch because he has already built a fundraising network. He has already traveled the early states and made those inroads, so launching a presidential campaign, perhaps earlier and perhaps without some of the mistakes that hampered his 2024 effort, would certainly be possible. WOLF: What about someone from Trump's new coalition? Robert F. Kennedy ran as a Democrat and an Independent in 2024; why not a Republican in 2028? 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Is there a lane for a Nikki Haley or somebody who has been critical of Trump, or should we assume that everybody who tries to run will just be swearing fealty to him? BRADNER: Only time will tell. Right now, none of these major Republican figures are publicly distancing themselves from Trump, but if Republicans are shellacked in the midterms, if they lose the House or — much, much longer shot — if they lose the Senate, that could change the landscape significantly. Primary voters want to win, and they're loyal to Trump, but if his popularity nosedives; if the party performs poorly in the midterms; if his tariffs wind up damaging the economy; if the roiling controversy over his administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files continues — all these sorts of things could wind up becoming political time bombs that could change the landscape and lead Republicans, even if they aren't publicly criticizing Trump, to do more to show their differences and to pitch themselves as their own person.
