afp | The accomplice of the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, has refused a hearing in the US House of Representatives. Maxwell invoked her right to remain silent on Monday, Republican Chairman of the Oversight Committee James Comer said. According to her lawyer, she would only be willing to testify if US President Donald Trump she pardoned.
Comer went on to say that Maxwell was “refusing to answer any questions.” That was “very disappointing”. The committee members had “many questions about the crimes she and Epstein committed and about possible co-conspirators.” Maxwell invoked the Fifth Amendment to the US Constitution, which allows people in proceedings not to incriminate themselves.
The committee hearing should take place behind closed doors. The plan was to connect Maxwell via video from the Texas prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence. She was convicted of sex trafficking of minors in 2022.
Congress rejects immunity claim
Maxwell’s lawyers had asked Congress to grant her legal immunity for her testimony. However, Congress rejected this. Without immunity, however, Maxwell will invoke her right to remain silent, her lawyers said. “Under these circumstances, the proceedings would serve no purpose other than pure political theater,” they wrote in a letter.
The networked right up to the highest levels of politics and business US investor Epstein is said to have abused more than a thousand minors and young women and sometimes passed them on to celebrities. It was first in 2008 for inciting a minor to engage in prostitution been convicted. Because of a controversial deal with the public prosecutor, he received only 18 months in prison.
He was arrested again in 2019, including on suspicion of sexual abuse of minors. In August 2019, he was found hanging in his New York prison cell and, according to official reports, he took his own life.
Clintons loaded too, Trump not
At the end of January, the US Department of Justice published more than three million additional documents related to the Epstein case. Even if no new criminal proceedings are expected in the USA, numerous political and business figures have been involved in scandals or have had to resign after their connections to Epstein or details thereof became known.
At the end of the month, former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton are scheduled to testify before the congressional committee. Both called for a public hearing to prevent US President Trump’s Republicans from exploiting the matter. Trump, like the Clintons, had ties to Epstein but was not called to testify by the committee. Neither the Clintons nor Trump have yet been proven to have committed any wrongdoing.