Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, said in a letter to Congress on Monday that she was unwilling to testify without a grant of immunity or presidential action to shorten her 20-year prison sentence.
Public attention has shifted recently to the prospect of Ms. Maxwell’s testimony to lawmakers after the Trump administration suddenly reversed course and refused to release any more evidence from the Epstein investigation.
Jeffrey Epstein, a well-connected multimillionaire, hung himself in a federal prison cell in 2019 shortly after he was arrested and charged with sex trafficking. An investigation more than a decade earlier ended in Mr. Epstein pleading guilty to state charges in Florida that resulted in an unusually light sentence for the crime of paying underage girls to perform sex acts.
After Mr. Epstein’s death, Ms. Maxwell was charged and convicted of conspiring to recruit female minors who were sexually abused by Mr. Epstein, but the case has generated a host of suspicions and accusations about others. For months, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior Trump officials publicly teased the pending release of important new details about the Epstein investigation, only to sharply reverse course this month and insist no more information would be provided, angering many of their own supporters.
Mr. Trump was a longtime friend of Mr. Epstein before the two had a falling out in 2004. The president has denied any wrongdoing and expressed exasperation in recent days that he is still fielding questions about the case.
Last week, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal reported that Ms. Bondi informed Mr. Trump in the spring that his name appeared in the Epstein files, although it wasn’t clear in what context, and F.B.I. files are often a mix of relevant evidence, unverified claims, and nonincriminating information.
In response to the backlash, Republicans have pursued possibilities other than simply releasing F.B.I. files, including questioning Ms. Ghislaine.
There are a host of legal challenges in trying to get meaningful testimony from someone still appealing their criminal conviction, and the new letter from her lawyer, David O. Markus, shows just how difficult it may be to get Ms. Ghislaine into a witness chair.
Any testimony she provides now, the lawyer noted, could compromise her appeals.
“Accordingly, our initial reaction was that Ms. Maxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights and decline to testify at this time. However, after further reflection, we would like to find a way to cooperate with Congress if a fair and safe path forward can be established,” Mr. Markus wrote.
One of those conditions would be a grant of immunity — a highly fraught issue given her status as a convicted sex trafficker involving minors. “Ms. Maxwell cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity,” Mr. Markus wrote. She also will not speak to congressional investigators in the federal prison in Florida where she is currently incarcerated, the letter said.
She is also only willing to testify after her appeals are resolved — which could take months or even years.
Ms. Maxwell’s legal team suggested one way in which those obstacles could be removed — if she were granted clemency. President Trump has declined to talk about whether he might grant a pardon or commutation to her.
If she were to be granted clemency, “she would be willing — and eager — to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C.,” Mr. Markus wrote. “She welcomes the opportunity to share the truth and to dispel the many misconceptions and misstatements that have plagued this case from the beginning.”
Devlin Barrett covers the Justice Department and the F.B.I. for The Times.
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