Tuesday, February 10, 2026 - Ghislaine Maxwell on Monday, February 9 refused to answer questions from the House Oversight Committee, invoking her Fifth Amendment right during a closed-door deposition linked to the federal government’s handling of the late Jeffrey Epstein’s case.
The deposition ended less than an hour after it began,
shortly after Maxwell appeared virtually before lawmakers. She is currently
serving a 20-year prison sentence in Texas following her conviction as an
accomplice in Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
The House Oversight Committee Chairman, James Comer, and
committee member Ro Khanna had both indicated ahead of the session that they
expected Maxwell to decline answering questions.
The former British socialite was found guilty in December
2021 for her role in Epstein’s scheme to sexually exploit and traffic underage
girls. At the time of her sentencing, the Department of Justice said Maxwell
“enticed and groomed minor girls to be abused in multiple ways.”
Comer had announced plans to depose Maxwell late last month
while discussing efforts to hold former President Bill Clinton and former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress for declining to
appear before the committee.
“We’ve been trying to get her in for a deposition. Our
lawyers have been saying that she’s going to plead the Fifth, but we have
nailed down a date, Feb. 9, where Ghislaine Maxwell will be deposed by this
committee,” Comer said.
However, contempt proceedings against the Clintons stalled
after they agreed through their attorneys to testify in person on Capitol Hill,
just days before the House was expected to vote on referring them to the
Department of Justice for possible criminal charges.
Comer’s office had been in prolonged negotiations with
Maxwell’s legal team to secure her appearance. A previous deposition scheduled
for August was postponed at her lawyer’s request, pending a Supreme Court
decision on whether it would hear her appeal. The Supreme Court declined to
take up the case in October.
Maxwell’s deposition, alongside the planned testimonies of
the Clintons, forms part of the committee’s ongoing investigation into how
authorities handled Epstein’s case.
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