Ghislaine Maxwell Takes the Fifth Before House Investigators — and Asks Trump for Clemency

Ghislaine Maxwell appeared by video from a federal prison camp in Texas on February 9, 2026 for a closed-door House Oversight Committee deposition and repeatedly invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, refusing to answer questions about Jeffrey Epstein and possible co-conspirators. Her attorney said she would speak "fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump." Maxwell did volunteer that she had never seen evidence of Trump or Clinton involvement in anything illegal. She is serving a 20-year sentence and had been moved to the minimum-security camp after two meetings with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The posture places a convicted sex-trafficking defendant's testimony to Congress in explicit exchange for clemency from the President whose Justice Department also controls the underlying files — a conditioning of congressional fact-finding on an executive favor.

Committee Chairman James Comer called the refusal "obviously very disappointing." Rep. Ro Khanna noted she had not invoked the Fifth in her earlier meetings with Blanche. No clemency grant was reported in the sources reviewed.