Ghislaine Maxwell's bombshell televised testimony on Epstein's crimes indefinitely postponed

Daily Mail​

3 days ago

Ghislaine Maxwell 's testimony before Congress has been postponed pending her Supreme Court case, a top Republican has announced.
Maxwell, the longtime friend of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year-sentence for sex trafficking and has been in talks with the Trump administration and Congress about dishing on the disgraced financier and his relationships.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced last week that Maxwell was set to testify before the panel on August 11 at the Tallahassee facility where she is serving her prison sentence.
But now he says that planned sit-down interview is no longer happening.
Comer said in a letter he would agree to delay their meeting so that Maxwell's pending Supreme Court petition regarding her case could move forward unswayed by her testimony to the oversight panel.
'On July 30, the U.S. Supreme Court noticed that your petition for writ of certiorari will be considered at its conference on September 29. In light of this notice, the Committee is willing to delay your deposition until a date following the Court's certiorari determination,' he wrote.
The Supreme Court's new term begins in October.
'Your 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,' the chairman wrote to Maxwell.
Just days before, Comer denied the imprisoned woman's request for immunity should she speak to Congress.
'The Oversight Committee will respond to Ms. Maxwell's attorney soon, but it will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony,' a spokesperson for the panel told the Daily Mail this week.
The letter from Maxwell attorney David Markus to the committee - which was obtained by the Daily Mail - contains a list of conditions for her to testify, including immunity.
'Public reports—including your own statements—indicate that the committee intends to question Ms. Maxwell in prison and without a grant of immunity. Those are non-starters,' the letter states.
'Ms. Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity. Nor is a prison setting conducive to eliciting truthful and complete testimony. The potential for leaks from such a setting creates real security risks and undermines the integrity of the process.'
Markus further requested that the committee provide Maxwell with their questions in advance of their sit-down.
He also asked to push their meeting until after Maxwell's pending case before the Supreme Court in which she's alleging wrongful legal treatment and until after a subsequent secondary challenge so that her testimony does not sway those cases.
Maxwell may want to talk, according to a source who told the Daily Mail last week 'she would be more than happy to sit before Congress and tell her story.'
But there were always going to be strings attached to testimony from such a notorious target.
The rush to hear from Epstein's protege comes as some lawmakers have raised concern about her protection.
'I requested that she be placed immediately into protective custody and monitored - by guards as well as working surveillance equipment - around the clock, so that our justice system does not again fail the survivors of this Epstein nightmare,' Republican Rep. Scott Perry posted on X.
Trump's closest allies and rank-and-file members - including House Oversight Chairman James Comer, Anna Paulina Luna, Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene - backed the subpoena for Maxwell.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has met multiple times with Maxwell at the behest of Trump to discuss what she knows about the Epstein files.
Blanche offered Maxwell a limited form of immunity during her two days of questioning over former lover and billionaire pedophile Epstein last week.
She apparently requested what's known as 'proffer immunity' so that anything she revealed couldn't be used against her at a later date.
This form of immunity is specifically provided to people under investigation or facing charges to determine the value of a possible witness. Maxwell has already been tried and convicted.
However, Maxwell's lawyer David Oscar Markus said after her questioning: 'There have been no asks and no promises.'