Latest news with #Markus


The Guardian
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ghislaine Maxwell demands immunity before testifying to Congress
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, says that she is willing to testify before Congress but only if certain conditions are met, including being granted immunity, according to a new letter sent to the House oversight committee by her lawyer on Tuesday. Last week, the House committee on oversight and government subpoenaed Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, to testify via deposition next month at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is currently in custody. But in a new letter on Tuesday addressed to James Comer, a Republican who chairs the House committee, Maxwell's lawyer, David Markus, said that Maxwell was willing to testify but that testifying 'from prison and without a grant of immunity' were 'non-starters'. Markus wrote that their initial reaction to the subpoena was that 'Maxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights and decline to testify at this time.' 'As you know, Ms Maxwell is actively pursuing post-conviction relief – both in a pending petition before the United States Supreme Court and in a forthcoming habeas petition,' Markus wrote. 'Any testimony she provides now could compromise her constitutional rights, prejudice her legal claims, and potentially taint a future jury pool.' But, in the following paragraph, he states: 'However, after further reflection, we would like to find a way to cooperate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established,' adding: 'Several conditions would need to be addressed for that to be possible.' The conditions in the letter include a grant of 'formal immunity', that the interview not take place at the correctional facility, that the committee's questions be given to her in advance, and that the deposition not be scheduled until after the 'resolution of her Supreme Court petition and her forthcoming habeas petition'. 'Ms Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity,' the letter states. In the letter, Maxwell's lawyer said that if the demands were not met, Maxwell 'will have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights'. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the oversight committee said that the committee 'will respond to Ms Maxwell's attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony'. At the end of the letter from Maxwell's lawyer on Tuesday, her lawyer also made a plea for clemency. 'Of course, in the alternative, if Ms Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing – and eager – to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, DC,' the letter states. 'She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning.' Last week, officials from the Department of Justice met with Maxwell over two days, amid growing pressure on the Trump administration to disclose more details about the Epstein case. This comes as earlier this month, the justice department drew bipartisan backlash, including from some Trump supporters, after announcing that it would not be releasing further documents from the Epstein case, despite earlier promises by Trump and the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to do so.


USA Today
4 hours ago
- Politics
- USA Today
Ghislaine Maxwell seeks immunity or clemency for testimony to Congress: What to know
From immunity to stepping outside prison bars to waiting out her appeals, Ghislaine Maxwell has a series of demands if Congress wants her testimony. She also has a back-up option: clemency from Trump. Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell wants immunity and an advance look at the questions if Congress expects her to publicly testify about her ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein. She also wants a pardon. Maxwell's defense lawyer, David Markus, laid out his client's conditions in a July 29 letter to Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, who issued a subpoena for Maxwell's testimony last week. Comer, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has said he wants to hear from Maxwell as he looks at how the federal government enforces sex-trafficking laws and what happened in the cases against her and Epstein. Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting a federal sex-trafficking trial. He was previously convicted in 2008 of two Florida prostitution offenses, in what many consider a sweetheart plea deal. The disgraced financier was sentenced to just 18 months behind bars, despite facing serious allegations of sex crimes involving minors. About a decade later, New York federal prosecutors brought a sex-trafficking indictment against him. Last week, Maxwell spoke with Justice Department officials over the course of two days as the Trump administration seeks to quell public outrage over its early July announcement that it didn't find evidence in its Epstein-related files to justify investigating anyone else, and that it won't be releasing the files. Here's the latest on what Maxwell wants if she's going to talk to Congress: Maxwell demands immunity for testimony Maxwell will only speak publicly to Congress if she is first granted full immunity for her testimony, according to Markus's letter. He said the immunity will shield her from getting into more criminal trouble for coming forward. "Ms. Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity," according to the letter. That arrangement would be similar to the reported conditions of Maxwell's interview with the Justice Department. It granted her a limited form of immunity in exchange for her participation, according to ABC News and NBC News. Testifying from outside prison? Maxwell also insisted that she won't talk to Congress from behind bars, even though Comer arranged for her to be deposed at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida. A prison setting wouldn't be conducive to getting "truthful and complete testimony" from Maxwell, according to Markus' letter. "The potential for leaks from such a setting creates real security risks and undermines the integrity of the process," Markus added. An advance look at questions? Congress should also give Maxwell its questions in advance, Markus insisted. That arrangement, he said, is "essential" for allowing her to meaningfully prepare, and will also let her find documents to corroborate her testimony. Markus suggested the arrangement is especially important because she has been incarcerated for several years, rendering surprise questions unproductive. "Years after the original events and well beyond the criminal trial, this process cannot become a game of cat-and-mouse," Markus wrote in the letter. Waiting for Supreme Court to address appeal Maxwell currently has an appeal pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Markus' letter, she wants to wait to talk to Congress until after the high court resolves that appeal, and also until after a separate court appeal she is planning has run its course. "Proceeding before those matters are resolved would unfairly prejudice her if she is successful," Markus wrote. Maxwell is arguing in her Supreme Court appeal that Epstein's 2008 plea deal should have shielded her from being charged. The agreement included a provision protecting potential co-conspirators from criminal charges. However, the government says the prosecution against Maxwell in the Southern District of New York was permitted because the deal only applied to prosecutions in the Southern District of Florida. The Supreme Court hasn't yet decided whether to hear Maxwell's appeal. If that doesn't work? Maxwell would also accept a pardon If those conditions don't work, Markus said there's an "alternative" Maxwell would be happy with: If President Donald Trump grants Maxwell clemency, "she would be willing — and eager — to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C." The president has the power to fully pardon Maxwell as well as to commute her 20-year prison sentence. Trump noted that power during questioning by reporters on July 28 in Scotland, but added it would be 'inappropriate' to discuss it.


Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Maxwell tells Trump: Free me and I'll tell all to Congress
Ghislaine Maxwell has said she will testify freely to Congress if Donald Trump frees her from jail. Lawyers for Maxwell, 63, agreed that she would appear before the House Oversight Committee, as long as she could see what questions they planned to ask her about her links to the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, in advance. She also asked that she receive legal immunity for any future convictions. Her lawyer requested that Maxwell's questioning take place after the Supreme Court rules on her appeal for her 2021 sex trafficking conviction. Alternatively, her lawyer said, she would speak 'freely and openly' to Congress right now if the president grants her clemency. Maxwell was last week subpoenaed to answer questions before Congress about her late boyfriend, for whom she was convicted of sex trafficking underage girls, meaning she would have been forced to appear in the coming months, anyway. 'Our initial reaction was that Ms Maxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights and decline to testify at this time,' David Oscar Markus, her lawyer, said in a letter to James Comer, the committee's Republican chairman ,which was shared with The Telegraph. He added: 'After further reflection, we would like to find a way to cooperate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established.' Mr Markus wrote that his client 'cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity'. He said that to 'prepare adequately for any congressional deposition – and to ensure accuracy and fairness – we would require the committee's questions in advance'. His letter continues: 'In the alternative, if Ms Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing – and eager – to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, DC, She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning.' Earlier this week, Mr Markus wrote to the Supreme Court urging it to look at Maxwell's 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges, arguing that a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein dating from 2008 prevented her subsequent prosecution. 'Plea and non-prosecution agreements resolve nearly every federal case. They routinely include promises that extend to others – co-conspirators, family members, potential witnesses,' he wrote to the court. 'If those promises mean different things in different parts of the country, then trust in our system collapses.' The case of Epstein, who was found dead in his New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, has continued to reverberate after his death. It has presented a challenge for Mr Trump, who was elected to a second term with a promise to release any outstanding evidence from the case. Many of his supporters believed senior Democrats and other powerful people would be revealed to be at the heart of a child sex trafficking ring. When the Department of Justice announced earlier this month there was no client list and the FBI was recommending there be no further release of material, there was outcry among some. While the president was one of Epstein's many high-profile associates, who also included former president Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, Mr Trump has said he broke off contact with him 20 years ago. When the Wall Street Journal published what it said was a 'bawdy' note from Mr Trump to Epstein for his 50th birthday, he denied having done so and said he was suing the paper and its owner Rupert Murdoch. Last week, Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who was previously Mr Trump's private lawyer, interviewed Maxwell for more than nine hours. Amid reports that the daughter of newspaper baron Sir Robert Maxwell, was seeking a pardon, some of Epstein's victims said it would be an act of betrayal to give one. Asked about a potential pardon, Mr Trump told reporters in Scotland over the weekend: 'Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but I – nobody's approached me with it.'


The Guardian
8 hours ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Ghislaine Maxwell demands immunity before testifying to Congress
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, says that she is willing to testify before Congress but only if certain conditions are met, including being granted immunity, according to a new letter sent to the House oversight committee by her lawyer on Tuesday. Last week, the House committee on oversight and government subpoenaed Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, to testify via deposition next month at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, where she is currently in custody. But in a new letter on Tuesday addressed to James Comer, a Republican who chairs the House committee, Maxwell's lawyer, David Markus, said that Maxwell was willing to testify but that testifying 'from prison and without a grant of immunity' were 'non-starters'. Markus wrote that their initial reaction to the subpoena was that 'Maxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights and decline to testify at this time.' 'As you know, Ms Maxwell is actively pursuing post-conviction relief – both in a pending petition before the United States Supreme Court and in a forthcoming habeas petition,' Markus wrote. 'Any testimony she provides now could compromise her constitutional rights, prejudice her legal claims, and potentially taint a future jury pool.' But, in the following paragraph, he states: 'However, after further reflection, we would like to find a way to cooperate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established,' adding: 'Several conditions would need to be addressed for that to be possible.' The conditions in the letter include a grant of 'formal immunity', that the interview not take place at the correctional facility, that the committee's questions be given to her in advance, and that the deposition not be scheduled until after the 'resolution of her Supreme Court petition and her forthcoming habeas petition'. 'Ms Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity,' the letter states. In the letter, Maxwell's lawyer said that if the demands were not met, Maxwell 'will have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights'. In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the oversight committee said that the committee 'will respond to Ms Maxwell's attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony'. At the end of the letter from Maxwell's lawyer on Tuesday, her lawyer also made a plea for clemency. 'Of course, in the alternative, if Ms Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing – and eager – to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, DC,' the letter states. 'She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning.' Last week, officials from the Department of Justice met with Maxwell over two days, amid growing pressure on the Trump administration to disclose more details about the Epstein case. This comes as earlier this month, the justice department drew bipartisan backlash, including from some Trump supporters, after announcing that it would not be releasing further documents from the Epstein case, despite earlier promises by Trump and the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to do so.


CBS News
8 hours ago
- Politics
- CBS News
Ghislaine Maxwell wants immunity or a pardon before congressional deposition
Washington — Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of aiding sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is willing to provide information to a congressional committee next month during a deposition but only if she is granted immunity or is pardoned, according to a letter from her attorney obtained by CBS News. Last week, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, to sit for a deposition as fallout over the Trump administration's handling of the case continues to intensify. A deposition was scheduled for Aug. 11 at a federal prison in Tallahassee, where Maxwell is serving her sentence. However, in a letter Tuesday addressed to House Oversight chairman Rep. James Comer, Maxwell's attorney David Markus said she is willing to sit before the committee but only after certain legal appeals are finalized or his client is granted clemency or a pardon by President Trump. "Public reports — including your own statements — indicate that the Committee intends to question Ms. Maxwell in prison and without a grant of immunity. Those are non-starters. Ms. Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity," Markus wrote. Markus wrote that any questions to Maxwell would have to be given to her in advance to "ensure accuracy and fairness," and that conducting the deposition in prison would create "security risks and undermines the integrity of the process." Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for her role in helping Epstein recruit, groom and abuse underage girls. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 as he faced sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide. Markus wrote that because Maxwell's ongoing appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn her conviction and other legal issues are currently pending, "any testimony she provides now could compromise her constitutional rights, prejudice her legal claims, and potentially taint a future jury pool." However, Markus wrote, if President Trump were to pardon Maxwell or commute her sentence, "she would be willing—and eager—to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C." If those conditions are not agreed to, Markus wrote, Maxwell "will have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights." A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee said in a statement that the committee will respond to Markus' letter "soon," but said it "will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony." In a letter to Maxwell informing her of the subpoena, Comer wrote that the committee is seeking Maxwell's 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." Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for her role in helping Epstein recruit, groom and abuse underage girls. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Epstein died in federal custody in 2019 as he faced sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide. Todd Blanche, the second highest-ranking Justice Department official, met with Maxwell in Tallahassee on July 24 and 25 to discuss Epstein. After the questioning had ended, Markus declined to comment "on the substance" of the meeting, but told reporters outside the office that "there were a lot of questions and we went all day." Neither President Trump nor Markus have ruled out the possibility of a pardon for Maxwell, but on Monday Mr. Trump said he is "allowed" to pardon Maxwell but that nobody has asked him to issue one, yet. Scott MacFarlane contributed to this reporting