(The Center Square) – Ghislaine Maxwell, close associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, refused to answer the House Oversight Committee’s questions in her virtual deposition Monday.
With Maxwell invoking her Fifth Amendment right to any and all questions, the deposition ended early, vexing both Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
“This is obviously very disappointing. We had many questions to ask about the crimes she and Epstein committed, as well as questions about potential co-conspirators,” committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told reporters.
The Oversight committee’s investigation will continue, Comer said, with five more depositions scheduled in the coming weeks and possible more to come.
Those deposed include billionaire businessman Les Wexner, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former president Bill Clinton, Epstein’s accountant Richard Kahn, and Epstein’s legal advisor Darren Indyke.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, while Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence. Maxwell had already indicated that, unless granted clemency by the president, she would plead the Fifth during the Feb. 9 deposition.
“She is already serving a 20 year sentence for trafficking minors. What more could she possibly be hiding?,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., posted on social media after the fruitless deposition. “The answer is obvious. She is protecting powerful people who were involved in abusing children. We are not backing down.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who cosponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, said he was frustrated that Maxwell took a blanket Fifth Amendment right since some questions – such as who Epstein’s co-conspirators were – would not incriminate her.
“She’s pleading the Fifth about things that don’t implicate her but may implicate many of the other powerful people in the Epstein class that committed these crimes,” Khanna told reporters.
Democrats have called on President Donald Trump to officially rule out pardoning Maxwell, arguing that his neglecting to do so has incentivized Maxwell to withhold information.
“She is telling Donald Trump through her deposition that she is trying to buy her clemency,” Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., said. “This was an effort to try to essentially secure her pardon by keeping her mouth shut. And we will not allow this silence to stand.”
In the over 3 million files on Epstein that the Department of Justice released on orders from Congress, dozens of high-profile figures are mentioned, including Trump; Bill Clinton; Wexner; billionaires Elon Musk, Richard Branson, and Bill Gates; current Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, former Harvard University president Larry Summers, and others.
The DOJ has warned that many of the files contain false or unverified content, but that it has released them anyway due to transparency requirements.
