Ghislaine Maxwell pleads Fifth Amendment, dodges questions in House Oversight Epstein probe
The House Oversight Committee's deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell ended less than an hour after it began on Monday morning, when the convicted accomplice of the late Jeffrey Epstein pleaded the Fifth Amendment.
Maxwell appeared before lawmakers virtually for a closed-door interview in the House bipartisan probe into the federal government's handling of Epstein's case.
She is currently serving out a 20-year sentence at a Texas prison.
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Both House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a member of the committee, said they expected Maxwell to plead the Fifth Amendment in the lead-up to her scheduled sit-down.
The former British socialite was found guilty in December 2021 of being an accomplice in Epstein's scheme to sexually traffic and exploit female minors.
The DOJ said at the time of her sentencing that Maxwell "enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused in multiple ways."
Comer announced lawmakers would hear from Maxwell late last month during a meeting on holding former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for his Epstein probe.
"We’ve been trying to get her in for a deposition. Our lawyers have been saying that she’s going to plead the Fifth, but we have nailed down a date, Feb. 9, where Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by this committee," Comer said at the time.
Contempt proceedings against the Clintons stalled, however, after they agreed via their attorneys to appear in person on Capitol Hill just days before the full House of Representatives was expected to vote on referring the pair to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges.
Comer's team had been in a back-and-forth with Maxwell's attorney for months trying to nail down a date for her to speak to committee lawyers.
He agreed to delay her previous planned deposition in August after her lawyer asked him to wait until after the Supreme Court decided whether it would hear her appeal. The Supreme Court turned down Maxwell's case in October.
She and the Clintons' depositions are part of the House Oversight Committee's months-long probe into how the government handled Epstein's case.