Ghislaine Maxwell to testify before US Congress in Epstein probe

Ghislaine Maxwell, the jailed associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to testify under oath before the congressional committee investigating the federal government's handling of the Epstein cases.Committee chairman James Comer, who is leading the investigation, says Maxwell will depose virtually on 9 February. Maxwell's legal team has previously said she would decline to answer questions under her constitutional right to remain silent unless she is granted legal immunity. Comer, previewing the deposition, said, "her lawyers have been saying she is going to plead the Fifth," referring to the US Fifth Amendment right to decline to speak to authorities.The announcement from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee comes as the Trump administration continues to come under fierce scrutiny for its handling of the Epstein case.Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and trafficking teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein. In July, the committee declined to offer Maxwell legal immunity in exchange for her testimony.In August, the committee issued legal summons to Maxwell, requiring her to submit evidence under oath. Maxwell's legal team said that requiring her to both testify from jail, and without any legal immunity, were "non-starters".The lawyers said she "cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity" as speaking from prison "creates real security risks and undermines the integrity of the process".House lawmakers cannot force Maxwell to waive her Fifth Amendment protections.On Tuesday, Maxwell's legal team said in a letter to the committee that she would continue to refuse to testify."Put plainly, proceeding under these circumstances would serve no other purpose than pure political theater and a complete waste of taxpayer monies," the attorneys wrote. "The Committee would obtain no testimony, no answers, and no new facts."Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, had appealed against the conviction to the Supreme Court last October but the top court declined to hear the former British socialite's appeal.Her only route to leave prison early would be a presidential pardon, unless she is able to persuade a federal judge in New York to vacate or amend her sentence. The White House has denied that Trump is considering granting her clemency, however, Trump has also said he has not ruled it out.Separately, the Department of Justice faced a deadline of 19 December last year to release all remaining Epstein files in their possession. So far only a fraction of them have been made public.The department has faced criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over the number of redactions in the files, which the law permits only to protect victims' identities and active criminal investigations.Meanwhile, the House committee is also meeting to discuss former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton's refusal to appear before the panel to answer questions related to the investigation into Epstein.The committee has said it is considering filing contempt charges against the two.