Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell declines to answer questions from US politicians

LAST UPDATE | 16 hrs ago

JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S ACCOMPLICE Ghislaine Maxwell declined to answer any questions put to her behind closed doors by members of the United States Congress today, invoking her right to remain silent. 

Maxwell, currently serving 20 years in prison for trafficking girls to the disgraced financier Epstein, faced questions from prison via video link, in a deposition by the House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee.

Though no new US prosecutions are expected after the latest dump of government files on Epstein, numerous political and business leaders have fallen into scandal or resigned as their ties to the convicted sex criminal were revealed.

The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is probing Epstein’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled.

Maxwell, as expected, invoked her right not to incriminate herself, guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.

Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor. His extensive ties to the world’s rich and powerful, especially after he was released in 2009, have become politically explosive across the globe.

He died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking children in what was ruled a suicide.

Maxwell’s lawyers have pushed for Congress to grant her legal immunity in order to testify in the deposition, but lawmakers refused.

Without that, her legal team said she would invoke her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.

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“Proceeding under these circumstances would serve no other purpose than pure political theatre,” her lawyers said in a letter.

Though the deposition took place behind closed doors, representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, published a letter of the questions he intended to ask Maxwell even if she refuses to answer.

Some touch on Donald Trump’s ties to Epstein and Maxwell.

Others focus on four “co-conspirators” as well as 25 other men who allegedly “sexually abused minors at Epstein’s island.”

One of the questions asks: “Why do you believe they were not indicted?”

The Trump administration has already come under criticism for its handling of her case.

Last year Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas after meeting twice with deputy attorney general Todd Blanche, who previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer.

Trump himself was a longtime Epstein associate, but has not been called to testify by the Oversight Committee, which is led by members of his Republican Party.

Trump has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein’s activities.

Former president Bill Clinton and his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, both Democrats are also expected to be deposed by the committee.

The Clintons have called for their depositions to be held publicly to prevent Republicans from politicising their testimony.