Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, invoked her Fifth Amendment right to silence during a Monday deposition with members of the House Oversight Committee, refusing to answer questions asked during a video call from the federal prison camp in Texas where she is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
During the deposition, Maxwell indicated she would be willing to testify if President Donald Trump ended her prison sentence, saying she could explain why she said neither Trump nor former President Bill Clinton had done anything wrong in their connections with Epstein. Committee video later released by the panel showed Maxwell repeatedly citing “my Fifth Amendment right to silence” as she declined to respond to lawmakers’ questions.
The deposition comes as lawmakers investigate how Epstein, a well-connected financier, was able to sexually abuse underage girls for years, and they are searching for people who were connected to Epstein and may have facilitated the abuse. House leaders have said their inquiries have highlighted how both Trump and Clinton spent time with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, while lawmakers reported that those figures have not been credibly accused of wrongdoing in the materials they have seen so far.
Maxwell’s legal team, in a statement provided to the committee during the closed-door deposition, said she was prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by Trump. Her lawyer, David Oscar Markus, also said Trump and Clinton “are innocent of any wrongdoing,” adding that Maxwell “alone can explain why,” and arguing that the public is entitled to that explanation.
Democrats criticized the clemency push as a strategy aimed at persuading Trump. Rep. Melanie Stansbury said it was “very clear she’s campaigning for clemency,” while Republicans quickly pushed back on the idea after Maxwell made the appeal. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wrote on social media: “NO CLEMENCY. You comply or face punishment,” adding, “You deserve JUSTICE for what you did you monster.”
Maxwell has also been seeking to overturn her conviction, arguing she was wrongfully convicted. The Supreme Court rejected her appeal last year, and in December she asked a federal judge in New York to consider what her attorneys described as “substantial new evidence” that her trial was spoiled by constitutional violations; her attorney cited that petition when telling lawmakers she would invoke her Fifth Amendment rights.
Separately, family members of Virginia Giuffre—one of Epstein’s most outspoken victims—sent Maxwell a letter making clear they do not consider her “a bystander” to Epstein’s abuse. Sky and Amanda Roberts wrote in the letter addressed to Maxwell that she was “a central, deliberate actor in a system built to find children, isolate them, groom them, and deliver them to abuse.”
Lawmakers also pressed forward with their broader review of Epstein-related materials. Several committee members visited a Justice Department office in Washington on Monday to examine unredacted versions of files released to comply with a law Congress passed last year. Under the arrangement, lawmakers reviewed more than 3 million files in a reading room using four computers, with lawmakers limited to handwritten notes and staff not permitted to enter the room.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said it would take months for House members to digest the volume of records even if they each spent significant time in the reading room. Democrats are looking ahead to a Wednesday hearing with Attorney General Pam Bondi, where they plan to question her on publication of the Epstein files, including concerns that the department failed to redact personal information of many victims and inadvertently released nude photos of them.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who sponsored the legislation that forced the release of the files, said that after reviewing unredacted versions for several hours, he found the names of six men “that are likely incriminated by their inclusion.” Massie said he called on the Justice Department to pursue accountability for those men, and he said he could name them in a House floor speech where his actions would be protected from lawsuits. He and Rep. Ro Khanna also said they found files with redactions that they attributed to the FBI having turned over redacted versions to the Justice Department.
Khanna said the abuse was not limited to Epstein and Maxwell. Rep. Ro Khanna said “it wasn’t just Epstein and Maxwell” who were involved in sexually abusing underage girls. The release of the files has also prompted political fallout abroad, including in the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced criticism after it was revealed his former ambassador to the United States maintained close ties with Epstein. Raskin said he was concerned that broader degradation in American life may have conditioned people not to treat the revelations with the seriousness he said they warrant.