Lawmakers push back against pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell

A former girlfriend and longtime confidant of Epstein, Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for her role in luring victims to be abused by the late sex offender over the course of a decade.

Maxwell, now 64, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence at a prison camp in Texas. Her scheduled release date from prison is listed as July 17, 2037, on the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., said Democrats on the committee were “united in opposing any pardon” for Maxwell in return for her testimony and cooperation with the committee’s investigation into Epstein.

In response to the Politico reporting, Comer reiterated Thursday that he is not open to the former British socialite receiving a pardon.

He had told the news outlet that committee members were “split on that,” but it’s unclear how many GOP lawmakers would support –– and lobby the president –– for Maxwell’s release.

It’s unclear what the House Oversight Committee’s involvement would be in negotating with Maxwell for information she may have about Epstein’s crimes and any other individuals in his orbit since only the president the authority to issue a federal pardon.

Previously, Maxwell was granted limited immunity when she spoke to now acting Attorney General Todd Blanche during an interview last year. She was later moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.

A request for comment made to Maxwell’s attorney was not immediately returned. Maxwell appeared virtually before the House Oversight Committee in February for a closed-door deposition, where she declined to answer questions from lawmakers citing the advice of her attorneys. Her lawyer said on social media that she was “prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump.”

Trump has previously said he “would have to take a look at it,” when asked about pardoning Maxwell in NovemberNBC News reported. He responded to a follow-up question about if he was considering doing so, by saying: “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider. I don’t know anything about it.”

Several months earlier, he said during an interview with Newsmax“I’m allowed to do it, but nobody’s asking me to do it. I know nothing about it.”

A request for comment made to the White House on Friday afternoon was not immediately returned.

When asked Friday if she would support a pardon for Maxwell, a spokesperson for Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said, “Ghislaine Maxwell helped Jeffrey Epstein traffic children. Our answer is a hard no.”

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., said during an interview on NewsNation“She’s not getting a pardon. The votes are not there for that.”

At least one Epstein accuser also spoke out against Maxwell being granted any kind of clemency.

“Before you consider a pardon of a convicted sex offender and trafficker, imagine explaining it to your wife, sister, or daughter,” Annie Farmer, who says she was abused by both Maxwell and Epstein, said in a statement. “Could you live with knowing that you’ve chosen to put a felon — who recruited, groomed, and threatened underage girls and young women — above survivors?”

Farmer noted that her sister, Maria Farmer, had reported her own allegations of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell to the FBI in 1996, and Annie Farmer testified at Maxwell’s trial.

“In the clearest terms possible, this move would be detrimental to survivors,” her statement continued. “We ask the Department of Justice to permanently close the door on any pardon or commutation for Maxwell and instead open the door on a criminal investigation into the enablers of Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell’s abuse.”

Maxwell submits new request to have conviction overturned

Maxwell has also been working to have her federal conviction overturned, filing a habeas petition earlier this year and subsequently seeking to amend her request to include materials made public as part of the Justice Department’s disclosure of roughly 3.5 million records.

In a letter dated Tuesday that was posted as a court filing in her case, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton for the Southern District of New York wrote that prosecutors had received a FedEx envelope with “a USB drive with the defendant’s amended motion and exhibits.”

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer directed federal prosecutors to submit their response to Maxwell’s petition by May 19, and the government would then have two weeks after any written reply by Maxwell to make redactions before the court records would be made public.

The instructions come after Engelmayer scolded Maxwell for including the names of victims and other identifying information in her prior attempt to have her conviction overturned, and as lawmakers and sex abuse survivors have criticized the Justice Department for not properly redacting records it released.

Separately, the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General launched an investigation Thursday into prosecutors’ handling of the Epstein files release and compliance with a law, requiring that the records related to the investigations into Epstein and Maxwell be made public — with only a handful of exceptions.

Deposition of former AG Bondi

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have also continued their call for former Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer lamwakers’ questions after her previous deposition was canceled. Bondi, who was fired by Trump earlier this month, had been scheduled to testify April 14.

“Pam Bondi was complicit in the most egregious cover up in American history. Now she’s breaking the law by refusing to comply with our bipartisan subpoena,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., posted late Thursday. She added that Democrats would hold the former top prosecutor in contempt.

But GOP leadership said that Bondi’s deposition timing was still being ironed out.

“We are working with Pam Bondi’s attorney to schedule her deposition and we expect to have a date to announce soon,” the House Oversight Committee spokeswoman said in a statement Friday.

Luna said that she was also calling for “co-conspirators,” who she described as women and one doctor, to appear before the committee in the NewsNation interview.

“I don’t think that we even actually have the full files,” the Florida Republican said, echoing criticism that has also been made by several other lawmakers since the initial Dec. 19 deadline stipulated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act.