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Lawmakers tried Monday to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, but Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and former confidante exercised her Fifth Amendment rights to avoid answering potential questions.
Maxwell was to be questioned during a video call at a prison camp in Texas where he is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. He is under renewed scrutiny as lawmakers try to investigate how Epstein, a well-connected financier, was able to sexually abuse young girls for years.
Amid reports of Epstein’s abuse that have spread to nations around the world, law enforcement is looking for anyone connected to Epstein and who may have committed his abuse.
Also on Monday, lawmakers were able to begin looking at unredacted versions of the Epstein files released by the Justice Department to comply with legislation passed by Congress last year.
Maxwell wanted his sentence to be overturned, saying he was wrongly convicted. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal last year, but in December he asked a federal judge in New York to consider what his lawyers described as “fresh new evidence” that his case was tainted by constitutional violations.
Front burner31:06Epstein’s orbit: will justice come?
Jeffrey Epstein’s extensive connections with the rich and powerful, around the world, were fully demonstrated in more than 3 million files and documents released by the US Department of Justice late last week. There is mounting evidence of Epstein’s ties to people like President Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and tech titan Peter Thiel, as well as backbenchers working with power brokers around the world. Today, we discuss the biggest revelations with Politico’s senior legal correspondent Kyle Cheney. We also discuss why so few have been charged. For Front Burner documentation, please visit: []
Bipartisan disappointment
Maxwell’s attorney cited that request and told lawmakers he would be willing to testify that President Donald Trump or former president Bill Clinton were guilty of wrongdoing in their relationship with Epstein, according to both Democratic and Republican attorneys who spoke outside the closed-door meeting.
Democrats say Maxwell’s remarks were an attempt to persuade Trump to seek presidential clemency.
“It is very clear that he is campaigning for compassion,” said Rep. Melanie Stansbury, New Mexico Democrat.
The Republican chairman of the committee, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, said it was “very disappointing” that Maxwell declined to participate in the petition.
Comer subpoenaed him last year, but his lawyers have been telling the committee he won’t answer questions.
Comer has been under pressure to hold the position as he pressures the committee to compel the impeachment of Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After Comer threatened to hold contempt of Congress charges, both agreed to sit down to plead at the end of this month.
Comer has been at loggerheads with the Clintons over whether that evidence should be included in public court, but Comer reiterated Monday that he would insist on a closed-door hearing and release the documents and video later.
Maxwell, who has previously been charged with perjury, was transferred to a Texas prison camp from a maximum-security Florida facility shortly after he was interviewed last summer by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche of the Trump administration for any new information about Epstein’s crimes.
Regardless of the gravity and nature of Maxwell’s crimes, the judge who voted to convict him, Trump did not firmly close the door on the possibility of a pardon or commutation.
“I wouldn’t even think about it,” Trump said in October.
He asks Lutnick to resign
Meanwhile, Republican Representative Thomas Massie on Sunday called on Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, to resign over his misrepresentation of his contacts with Epstein. Massie was joined the next day on the matter by Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House oversight committee.
“It is now clear that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been lying about his relationship with Epstein. He said he had no contact with Epstein after 2005, and now we know they were in business together,” Garcia said in a post to X.
Files recently released by the Justice Department show that Lutnick may have visited Epstein’s private island for lunch in 2012 and invited Epstein to a 2015 Hillary Clinton fundraiser.
That would contradict Lutnick’s allegations that he swore he would not “be in the room” with Epstein following a 2005 incident in which the financier showed Lutnick, his Manhattan neighbor, a massage table in his townhouse and made sexually suggestive comments.
Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution of a minor in a 2008 Florida plea deal that did not receive national media attention at the time but was considered a lenient sentence with unclear circumstances. Allegations that Epstein trafficked some of his victims surfaced later. A new trial led to 2019, but the 66-year-old died by suicide in a prison cell before his trial.
Massie, speaking to CNN on Sunday, pointed out the difference in the British situation, where Epstein’s relationship led to negative consequences “less than what we saw Howard Lutnick lying about.”
In Britain, former prince Andrew has been stripped of most of his royal rights, and former US ambassador Peter Mandelson has resigned for lying about his relationship with Epstein. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has seen two key aides leave over the circumstances surrounding Mandelson’s appointment.
