Accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein | Ghislaine Maxwell testifies behind closed doors to Congress

(Washington) Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, testifies Monday before a committee of the US House of Representatives, but has already warned that she will invoke her right to remain silent.

This hearing, which should take place behind closed doors by videoconference from his prison in Texas, comes as the storm caused by the publication on January 30 of masses of documents from the Epstein file, which embarrass many personalities, rages across the four corners of the globe.

These “more than three million pages” published by the Department of Justice do not contain any new element that could lead to additional prosecutions, its number 2, Todd Blanche, immediately warned.

But although the mere mention of a person’s name in the file does not imply any reprehensible act a priori on their part, many personalities fear the shock wave of revelations about their past links with the sex criminal.

The chairman of the investigations committee of the House of Representatives dominated by the Republicans, James Comer, announced on January 21 this hearing of Ghislaine Maxwell, 64, awaited for many months.

The lawyers of the inmate, engaged in final appeals against her conviction in 2022 to 20 years in prison for sexual exploitation, demanded from Congress criminal immunity in exchange for her testimony.

Failing to have obtained it, they warned in a letter to Mr. Comer that she would invoke her right against self-incrimination, guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the American Constitution.

As a result, this hearing “would serve no purpose other than pure political theater and a waste of taxpayer dollars.” The commission would obtain no testimony, no answers, no new facts,” they said.

A Democratic MP, Ro Khanna, published on his site a letter containing the seven questions he intended to ask Ghislaine Maxwell, even if she refuses to answer them.

“Did you or Mr. Epstein arrange, facilitate, or allow President Trump to have access to minors?” », the MP wishes to ask. Another question concerns the sexual predator’s potential accomplices. “Why do you think they haven’t been charged?” », intends to ask Mr. Khanna.

The Democrat would also like to know which “foreign governments or intelligence services, including those associated with Russia and Israel, with which Mr. Epstein shared information or on whose behalf he acted.”

Interview with the number 2 of the Department of Justice

Todd Blanche, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, went so far as to go to Florida where she was serving her sentence at the end of July, in a highly unusual move, to question her for a day and a half.

Shortly after, she was transferred to a less secure prison in Texas, sparking outrage among victims and their loved ones.

In the transcript of this interview published in August by the department, Ghislaine Maxwell said she did not believe in the suicide in prison in August 2019 in New York by Jeffrey Epstein, without wanting to speculate on the identity of the person responsible for the death of her accomplice and former companion.

Some Americans and figures of the radical right believe that the financier was assassinated to prevent him from implicating personalities who would have benefited from his network of sexual exploitation of young girls.

In the same interview, Epstein’s ex-girlfriend also confirms that he did not keep a “client list”, and was not aware of any blackmail against important personalities.

The same parliamentary committee has summoned former Democratic President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, former US Secretary of State, to be heard separately at the end of the month, on the links that Bill Clinton maintained with Jeffrey Epstein.

They demanded public hearings this week, saying they wanted to avoid exploitation of their remarks by the Republicans.