House Oversight to depose Ghislaine Maxwell

Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, will sit for a deposition before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Feb. 9, Chair James Comer said Wednesday.

The announcement came during a markup of contempt measures for Bill and Hillary Clinton, who refused to comply with subpoenas to sit for scheduled depositions last week as part of the panel's Epstein probe.

Comer, a Kentucky Republican, had previously said he did not intend to send his staff to interview Maxwell, who is now serving a 20-year sentence at a prison camp in Texas for her part in Epstein's trafficking scheme. Maxwell's legal team had indicated she would plead her Fifth Amendment rights in declining to cooperate with lawmakers' questioning.

The deposition is expected to be virtual.

In a letter to Comer dated Jan. 20, however, Maxwell's attorneys maintained that her posture had not changed regarding her Fifth Amendment rights. The lawyers also requested that the deposition be delayed until Maxwell's legal proceedings had resolved.

"Put plainly, proceeding under these circumstances would serve no other purpose than pure political theater and a complete waste of taxpayer monies," the attorneys wrote. "The Committee would obtain no testimony, no answers, and no new facts."

They added that Maxwell would testify in a public forum if she were to receive clemency — a presidential power that President Donald Trump has not ruled out.