Ghislaine Maxwell, the infamous associate of the now-deceased serial child rapist Jeffrey Epstein, has sent a list of stomach-churning demands to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY), via her attorneys, laying out the ultimatums that must be met before she will agree to testify before Congress, as the Epstein Scandal continues to loom hot and heavy over Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
Politico’s Josh Gerstein obtained the letter, in which Maxwell’s attorneys, David Oscar Markus, Leah Saffian, and Melissa Madrigal informed Comer of their client’s demands, stating that unless Congress meets these “conditions,” Maxwell’s testimony could “compromise her constitutional rights, prejudice her legal claims, and potentially taint a future jury pool.”
Maxwell’s legal team made it perfectly clear that their high-profile client would have no choice but to invoke her 5th Amendment right to remain silent and avoid self-incrimination, as afforded to her by the United States Constitution, unless her demands were met.
In total, the attorneys laid out three demands on behalf of their client that Congress would have to meet if they hoped to see Ghislaine seated before them and cooperative: She must be out of a prison setting with immunity or clemency from President Donald Trump, Congress must provide their full list of questions in advance, and no appearance before Congress should be scheduled until after the US Supreme Court has ruled on her current and forthcoming petitions.
In their first of three points, Maxwell’s attorneys state that immunity or clemency would be required, as their client ” cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity.” Additionally, they assert that a “prison setting” is not “conducive to eliciting truthful and complete testimony,” further claiming that an interview from inside the prison where Maxwell remains housed in connection with her 20-year sentence would create a “security risk” due to the “potential for leaks.”
In their second demand, Maxwell’s legal team asserts that all of Congress’s questions must be submitted in advance, writing, “Years after the original events and well beyond the criminal trial, this process cannot become a game of cat-and-mouse. Surprise questioning would be both inappropriate and unproductive.”
Last but not least, the legal team for the infamous Epstein associate states that their client refuses to testify before Congress until the U.S. Supreme Court has heard and issued a decision on her case.
“Proceeding before those matters are resolved would unfairly prejudice her if she is successful,” Maxwell’s attorneys wrote.
“Of course, in the alternative, if Ms. Maxwell were to receive clemency, she would be willing—and eager—to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C. She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning,” the disturbing letter reads, also noting that, should the Committee refuse these demands, “Ms. Maxwell will have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights.”
“In any event, Ms. Maxwell should never have been charged in the first place. In 2008, the United States government promised, in writing, that she would not be prosecuted. It broke that promise only after Mr. Epstein died in 2019—at which point Ms. Maxwell became a convenient scapegoat.”
You can read the full letter from Maxwell’s attorneys here
Featured image via Heute, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
