Ghislaine Maxwell's could dodge congressional subpoena for her testimony in Epstein investigation, lawyer says
'We have to make a decision about whether she will do that or not,' her attorney David Oscar Markus told Politico. 'That's been scheduled for the week of August 11th and we haven't gotten back to them on whether we'll do that.'
Maxwell could invoke the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying, while Congress could offer the former British socialite immunity.
Maxwell is currently in a Florida federal prison serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors, which she has sought to overturn in the Supreme Court. Her lawyer said, Maxwell is hoping Donald Trump pardons her.
A bipartisan group on the House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to subpoena Maxwell amid renewed interest into the Epstein scandal.
Maxwell sat with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in recent days for an in-depth interview in Florida. The interview featured Maxwell answering questions about ' 100 different people,' her lawyer said. DOJ officials spoke to her as fallout from the president's handling of releasing information in the Epstein case continues to mount.
Democrats have criticized Maxwell's conversations with the DOJ, arguing they are a conflict of interest given the political pressure the Trump administration is facing to disclose more about the Epstein case and Trump's personal relationship with the disgraced investor.
'Under no circumstances should anyone from Trump's DOJ be allowed to privately interview Ghislaine Maxwell,' Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X of the interview.
'The conflict of interest is glaring. It stinks of high corruption.'
The battle over Epstein info has played out beyond just Congress, which House Speaker Mike Johnson broke early for an August recess as legislators pressured the administration to disclose the full Epstein files.
Last week, President Trump filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal 's parent companies News Corp and Dow Jones, after the paper reported that Trump sent a 'bawdy' birthday letter to Epstein. The president has denied the letter is valid.
The Epstein saga has created a rare wedge between Trump and members of his base and party.
Trump and his allies campaigned on releasing more information about Epstein, and initially, the White House made steps toward fulfilling that promise, releasing what it called ' Phase 1 ' of the Epstein files to a group of conservative commentators and online personalities in February. However, most of it was redacted or already disclosed. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice announced there was no 'Epstein client list' despite speculation, and that no more disclosures would be made about the case, infuriating parts of the MAGA base.
The president has chastised his own supporters for their intrigue over Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial, calling the scandal a Democrat-led 'scam' and 'con job.'
The president, who has previously denied being mentioned in the Epstein files, was in fact told by the Justice Department he was one of numerous high-profile figures mentioned in the course of investigations into Epstein, the Wall Street Journal has reported.
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