Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell will be questioned by a US House committee but is expected to refuse to answer, citing her constitutional rights.
WASHINGTON: Ghislaine Maxwell will be questioned behind closed doors by the US Congress.
The deposition by the House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee will be conducted via videolink from prison, where Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking girls to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Her lawyers have stated she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. They argued that proceeding without a grant of legal immunity would serve “no other purpose than pure political theater”.
The committee is probing Epstein’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled. The latest release of government files on Epstein has already led to scandal and resignations among political and business leaders.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor and died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on trafficking charges. His extensive network among the global elite has become politically explosive.
The Trump administration has faced criticism over the handling of Maxwell’s case. She was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas last year after meetings with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Donald Trump.
Trump, a longtime Epstein associate, has not been called to testify by the Republican-led committee. Former president Bill Clinton and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, both Democrats, are also expected to be deposed.
The Clintons have called for their depositions to be held publicly to prevent Republicans from politicising their testimony.