Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who recruited, and along with Jeffrey Epstein, abused teenage girls for years, appeared before Congress on Monday via video call from the Bryan federal prison camp in Texas.
She was supposed to answer questions about Epstein’s network of powerful accomplices. Instead, she said nothing — and then made a stunning offer that tells you everything about where this investigation is really headed.
Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer a single question during her closed-door deposition with the House Oversight Committee. The session lasted less than an hour.
In plain terms, she showed up and stayed silent.
What Happened
The House Oversight Committee, led by Republican Chairman James Comer, had subpoenaed Maxwell back in July. For months, her lawyers fought and stalled. When she finally appeared via videolink from the federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she is serving a 20-year sentence, she offered a prepared statement through her attorney and then shut down every question by citing the Fifth Amendment.
“Unfortunately, she had an opportunity today to answer questions that every American has, questions that would be very important in this investigation, and she chose to invoke her Fifth Amendment,” Comer told reporters afterward, calling it “very disappointing.”
Ranking Democrat Robert Garcia of California was more blunt: “She answered no questions and provided no information about the men who raped and trafficked women and girls.”
The Clemency Play
Here is where the story takes its most disturbing turn.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, told lawmakers during the deposition that his client would be willing to testify fully — but only if President Trump grants her clemency. In other words, she wants out of prison in exchange for talking.
And to sweeten the deal, Markus added that Maxwell would testify that both Trump and former President Bill Clinton are “innocent of any wrongdoing.”
Think about that for a moment. A convicted sex trafficker, sitting in prison for abusing children, is dangling a presidential get-out-of-jail free card by pre-announcing that she would clear the president himself of any wrongdoing. Democrats immediately called it what it is: a brazen bid for a pardon.
“What we did get was another episode in her long-running campaign for clemency from President Trump,” said Democratic Representative James Walkinshaw of Virginia. “He could rule out clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell, the monster. The question for all of us today is why hasn’t he done that?”
Comer, for his part, said he does not support “any type of immunity or clemencies” for Maxwell. But notably, President Trump himself has not ruled it out.
The Bigger Picture
Maxwell’s silence is especially troubling because she was apparently not so quiet when she sat down with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last July. During that meeting — which took place after Maxwell was transferred to a lower-security prison in Texas — she reportedly answered questions without invoking the Fifth Amendment.
CNN report on the release of the Todd Blanche/Ghislaine Maxwell interview transcript
Blanche, it should be noted, previously served as Trump’s personal defense attorney before joining the Justice Department.
Democratic Representative Ro Khanna pointed out this double standard, calling it “inconsistent” that Maxwell would speak freely with Trump’s former personal lawyer but refuse to answer questions before the people’s elected representatives.
Khanna also published the list of questions he intended to ask Maxwell, including whether she or Epstein ever arranged access to underage girls for Trump, questions about four unnamed “co-conspirators,” and whether Epstein shared intelligence with foreign governments such as Russia or Israel. None of those questions were answered.
What’s Next
The committee’s investigation is far from over. Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are expected to sit for closed-door depositions on February 26 and 27 after Comer threatened them with criminal contempt charges for initially resisting their subpoenas.
The Clintons have been pushing for public hearings, but Comer insists on private depositions with transcripts and video released afterward.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice on Monday began allowing members of Congress to view unredacted versions of the Epstein files that were released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law in November 2025.
The Survivors Deserve Better
On Sunday night, just hours before Maxwell’s empty performance before Congress, eight survivors of Epstein’s abuse ran an ad during the Super Bowl. In the commercial, the women held photos of themselves as children and called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all remaining documents.
“After years of being kept apart, we’re standing together,” they said. “Because we all deserve the truth.”
The family of Virginia Giuffre, the most prominent Epstein survivor who passed away last year, sent a letter directly to Maxwell before the hearing. “Ghislaine, you deserve to spend the rest of your life in a jail cell,” it read. “Trapped in a cage forever just like you trapped your victims.”
Those survivors waited years for this moment — for Maxwell to sit before their representatives and account for what she did. What they got instead was silence, legal maneuvering, and a convicted child sex trafficker trying to negotiate her own freedom by promising to clear the president of any wrongdoing.
The truth these survivors are fighting for remains locked behind Fifth Amendment invocations, closed-door depositions, and a political system that seems more interested in protecting the powerful than exposing them.
