Maxwell won't answer questions from Congress, lawyer says

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted former associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, officially informed a U.S. House of Representatives committee this week through her legal counsel that she will invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Congress. Currently serving a 20-year sentence at a federal correctional institution in Florida, Maxwell was requested to provide testimony regarding the activities and network associated with Epstein as part of ongoing legislative inquiries into human trafficking and government oversight. Her legal team cited the constitutional protection to remain silent as the primary reason for declining the invitation to appear or answer questions from federal lawmakers. This decision marks a significant hurdle for members of Congress who have been attempting to uncover further details regarding the systemic failures that allowed Jeffrey Epstein to operate an international sex trafficking ring for decades. Maxwell, who was convicted in December 2021 on multiple counts of sex trafficking and conspiracy involving the recruitment of underage girls, remains a central figure in the investigation. Lawmakers had hoped that her testimony might shed light on high-profile accomplices or provide information about the internal operations of the ring that have not yet been made public through previous court proceedings. Legal experts suggest that Maxwell’s reliance on the Fifth Amendment is a strategic move intended to protect her position during ongoing appeals of her criminal conviction. By refusing to answer questions under oath, she prevents the prosecution or other investigative bodies from using her statements to build new cases or solidify existing ones against her. The move effectively limits the committee's ability to extract new disclosures regarding the Epstein saga, which continues to be a point of intense public and political scrutiny years after Epstein's death in a Manhattan jail cell.