Ghislaine Maxwell seeks immunity or clemency for testimony to Congress: What to know

USA Today

6 days ago

From immunity to stepping outside prison bars to waiting out her appeals, Ghislaine Maxwell has a series of demands if Congress wants her testimony. She also has a back-up option: clemency from Trump.
Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell wants immunity and an advance look at the questions if Congress expects her to publicly testify about her ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein. She also wants a pardon.
Maxwell's defense lawyer, David Markus, laid out his client's conditions in a July 29 letter to Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, who issued a subpoena for Maxwell's testimony last week. Comer, who heads the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has said he wants to hear from Maxwell as he looks at how the federal government enforces sex-trafficking laws and what happened in the cases against her and Epstein.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting a federal sex-trafficking trial. He was previously convicted in 2008 of two Florida prostitution offenses, in what many consider a sweetheart plea deal.
The disgraced financier was sentenced to just 18 months behind bars, despite facing serious allegations of sex crimes involving minors. About a decade later, New York federal prosecutors brought a sex-trafficking indictment against him.
Last week, Maxwell spoke with Justice Department officials over the course of two days as the Trump administration seeks to quell public outrage over its early July announcement that it didn't find evidence in its Epstein-related files to justify investigating anyone else, and that it won't be releasing the files.
Here's the latest on what Maxwell wants if she's going to talk to Congress:
Maxwell demands immunity for testimony
Maxwell will only speak publicly to Congress if she is first granted full immunity for her testimony, according to Markus's letter. He said the immunity will shield her from getting into more criminal trouble for coming forward.
"Ms. Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity," according to the letter.
That arrangement would be similar to the reported conditions of Maxwell's interview with the Justice Department. It granted her a limited form of immunity in exchange for her participation, according to ABC News and NBC News.
Testifying from outside prison?
Maxwell also insisted that she won't talk to Congress from behind bars, even though Comer arranged for her to be deposed at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida.
A prison setting wouldn't be conducive to getting "truthful and complete testimony" from Maxwell, according to Markus' letter.
"The potential for leaks from such a setting creates real security risks and undermines the integrity of the process," Markus added.
An advance look at questions?
Congress should also give Maxwell its questions in advance, Markus insisted. That arrangement, he said, is "essential" for allowing her to meaningfully prepare, and will also let her find documents to corroborate her testimony.
Markus suggested the arrangement is especially important because she has been incarcerated for several years, rendering surprise questions unproductive.
"Years after the original events and well beyond the criminal trial, this process cannot become a game of cat-and-mouse," Markus wrote in the letter.
Waiting for Supreme Court to address appeal
Maxwell currently has an appeal pending at the U.S. Supreme Court. According to Markus' letter, she wants to wait to talk to Congress until after the high court resolves that appeal, and also until after a separate court appeal she is planning has run its course.
"Proceeding before those matters are resolved would unfairly prejudice her if she is successful," Markus wrote.
Maxwell is arguing in her Supreme Court appeal that Epstein's 2008 plea deal should have shielded her from being charged.
The agreement included a provision protecting potential co-conspirators from criminal charges. However, the government says the prosecution against Maxwell in the Southern District of New York was permitted because the deal only applied to prosecutions in the Southern District of Florida.
The Supreme Court hasn't yet decided whether to hear Maxwell's appeal.
If that doesn't work? Maxwell would also accept a pardon
If those conditions don't work, Markus said there's an "alternative" Maxwell would be happy with: If President Donald Trump grants Maxwell clemency, "she would be willing — and eager — to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C."
The president has the power to fully pardon Maxwell as well as to commute her 20-year prison sentence. Trump noted that power during questioning by reporters on July 28 in Scotland, but added it would be 'inappropriate' to discuss it.