Ghislaine Maxwell is refusing to answer questions from Congress about pedophile Jeffrey Epstein unless she is granted clemency by Donald Trump.
The convicted sex trafficker floated that both Trump and Bill Clinton were innocent on Monday, but she would not share any more than that.
The longtime Epstein accomplice instead invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to self-incriminate during a virtual appearance before the House Oversight Committee.
Her play for Trump’s help comes as the president has been facing accusations about his own relationship with the late disgraced financier.
Trump has insisted he is innocent of any wrongdoing and raged about the investigation as a “hoax” by Democrats, but he has not ruled out a Maxwell pardon.
Maxwell’s lawyer released a lengthy statement calling for the president to take action in exchange for her speaking out in a way that would appear to absolve him.
“Ms. Maxwell is prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump. Only she can provide the complete account. Some may not like what they hear, but the truth matters,” Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Markus said.
He then suggested what she would elaborate on if Trump’s took action: “For example, both President Trump and President Clinton are innocent of any wrongdoing.”
Markus also said his client was keeping her lips sealed because she has a habeas petition challenging the lawfulness of her imprisonment still pending.
Maxwell is serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking, but her lawyer claims jurors lied to get on the jury and the government broke its promise of immunity.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer had said he was expecting Maxwell to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights even before she was subpoenaed to appear before the committee.
The powerful GOP member voiced frustration with her silence on Monday, but he told reporters that he did not believe she should be granted immunity or a pardon by the president.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who was also in Maxwell’s deposition, blasted her bargaining attempt and said she should be sent back to a maximum security prison.
Last summer, the convicted sex trafficker was transferred to a minimum security faciltity in Texas just days after meeting with Trump’s former personal attorney turned Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche for two days of interviews during which she lavished praise on Trump.
At that time, her lawyer also indicated she was seeking a pardon from the president.
Maxwell’s claim that the president and Clinton were innocent comes ahead of the former president appearing for a deposition before the committee at the end of the month.
Both the Clintons have been demanding they testify before the public, but the Kentucky Republican lawmaker said both their depositions would proceed behind closed doors as planned.
On Monday, the committee chairman said they had five more witnesses including the Clintons to hear from in the investigation.
He also announced businessman Les Wexner, a billionaire financial benefactor of Epstein, would appear before the committee. Esptein’s accountant and lawyer would both give depositions in March.
Comer on Monday sidestepped a question about Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick being hauled in for questioning.
The top Trump official had claimed that he had cut ties with Epstein in 2005, but newly released documents indicated that they had a relationship that went much longer than Lutnick had suggested.
Lawmakers this week will also get to grill Attorney General Pam Bondi when she appears before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. It is expected to be a fiery hearing as members of both parties want to know why the Justice Department failed to meet the deadline to release all the files as required by law.
Members of Congress are also getting their first chance to see the unredacted files at the Justice Department on Monday.
Reps. Thomas Massie and Khanna, who co-sponsored the law forcing the release of the files, said they would review them Monday afternoon.
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