House Oversight panel to depose Ghislaine Maxwell: Comer

The House Oversight Committee will depose Ghislaine Maxwell, associate of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Chairman James Comer announced Wednesday.

The committee will depose Maxwell on Feb. 9, according to Comer, POLITICO reported.

Previously, Comer had said that he didn't intend to send his staff to interview Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence at a prison camp in Texas for participating in Epstein’s trafficking scheme. Maxwell’s lawyers had indicated that she would plead her Fifth Amendment rights, declining to cooperate with lawmakers’ questioning.

Maxwell's attorneys wrote in a letter to Comer on Tuesday that their client said that her stance remained unchanged regarding her Fifth Amendment rights. The lawyers requested that the deposition be delayed until after Maxwell’s legal proceedings had been resolved.

“Put plainly, proceeding under these circumstances would serve no other purpose than pure political theater and a complete waste of taxpayer monies,” Maxwell's lawyers wrote. “The Committee would obtain no testimony, no answers, and no new facts.”

The deposition is expected to be virtual.

Maxwell's attorneys said that she would testify in a public forum if she were to receive clemency from President Trump.