House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced Wednesday that Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and longtime madam for disgraced pedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, will be deposed by the committee on February 9 as part of its investigation into the late sex offender.
Maxwell is expected to only answer questions by repeatedly pleading the Fifth, her lawyer said.
Comer made the announcement during a committee markup on resolutions to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas.
“We need to hear from Ghislaine Maxwell,” Comer said. “We’ve been trying to get her in for a deposition, and her lawyers have been saying that she’s going to plead the fifth, but we have nailed down a date, Feb. 9, where Maxwell will be deposed by this committee.”
Epstein’s co-conspirator was convicted on sex trafficking charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022.
The deposition is expected to be conducted virtually. Maxwell is currently serving her sentence at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Texas. She was transferred there last year after being held at a low-security facility in Florida.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said she will plead the Fifth repeatedly rather than answer questions.
“Ms. Maxwell will invoke her privilege against self-incrimination and decline to answer questions.”
“That is not a negotiating position or a tactical choice; it is a legal necessity,” wrote Markus. He said that Maxwell’s “post-conviction litigation is far from over.”
“Testimony under oath while a habeas petition is pending would risk irreparable prejudice to her constitutional claims and expose her to further criminal jeopardy,” he said. “The only certainty is a public spectacle in which a witness repeatedly invokes the Fifth Amendment.”
The committee was originally scheduled to depose Maxwell last August, but it was postponed.
Comer had said her testimony is “vital to the Committee’s efforts regarding Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, including the 2007 non-prosecution agreement and the circumstances surrounding Mr. Epstein’s death.”
Maxwell’s deposition is part of the larger investigation by the House Oversight Committee into Epstein and the federal government’s mishandling of his criminal cases.