{"id":302211,"date":"2025-07-29T21:26:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302211\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T21:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T21:26:13","slug":"ghislaine-maxwell-demands-immunity-before-testifying-to-congress-ghislaine-maxwell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/302211\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghislaine Maxwell demands immunity before testifying to Congress | Ghislaine Maxwell"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/ghislaine-maxwell\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ghislaine Maxwell<\/a>, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/jeffrey-epstein\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Last week, the House committee on oversight and government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jul\/22\/jeffrey-epstein-ghislaine-maxwell-subpoena\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">subpoenaed Maxwell<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">But in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/26035113-maxwellcomer072925\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">new letter<\/a> on Tuesday addressed to James Comer, a Republican who chairs the House committee, Maxwell\u2019s lawyer, David Markus, said that Maxwell was willing to testify but that testifying \u201cfrom prison and without a grant of immunity\u201d were \u201cnon-starters\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Markus wrote that their initial reaction to the subpoena was that \u201cMaxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights and decline to testify at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cAs you know, Ms Maxwell is actively pursuing post-conviction relief \u2013 both in a pending petition <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jul\/28\/ghislaine-maxwell-supreme-court\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">before the United States Supreme Court<\/a> and in a forthcoming habeas petition,\u201d Markus wrote. \u201cAny testimony she provides now could compromise her constitutional rights, prejudice her legal claims, and potentially taint a future jury pool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">But, in the following paragraph, he states: \u201cHowever, after further reflection, we would like to find a way to cooperate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established,\u201d adding: \u201cSeveral conditions would need to be addressed for that to be possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">The conditions in the letter include a grant of \u201cformal immunity\u201d, that the interview not take place at the correctional facility, that the committee\u2019s questions be given to her in advance, and that the deposition not be scheduled until after the \u201cresolution of her Supreme Court petition and her forthcoming habeas petition\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cMs Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">In the letter, Maxwell\u2019s lawyer said that if the demands were not met, Maxwell \u201cwill have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesperson for the oversight committee said that the committee \u201cwill respond to Ms Maxwell\u2019s attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">At the end of the letter from Maxwell\u2019s lawyer on Tuesday, her lawyer also made a plea for clemency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">\u201cOf course, in the alternative, if Ms Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing \u2013 and eager \u2013 to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, DC,\u201d the letter states. \u201cShe welcomes the opportunity to share<br \/>the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have<br \/>plagued this case from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">Last week, officials from the Department of Justice met with Maxwell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jul\/24\/ghislaine-maxwell-jeffrey-epstein-doj\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">over two days<\/a>, amid growing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jul\/14\/jeffrey-epstein-trump-maga-turmoil\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pressure on the Trump administration<\/a> to disclose more details about the Epstein case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-16w5gq9\">This comes as earlier this month, the justice department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jul\/14\/jeffrey-epstein-trump-maga-turmoil\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">drew bipartisan backlash<\/a>, including from some Trump supporters, after announcing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jul\/14\/jeffrey-epstein-trump-maga-turmoil\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">it would not be releasing<\/a> further documents from the Epstein case, despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2025\/jul\/14\/jeffrey-epstein-trump-maga-turmoil\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">earlier promises<\/a> by Trump and the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, says that she is willing to testify&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-302211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114938641447092953","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}