Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) on Friday agreed to a request from Ghislaine Maxwell to delay deposing her till after the Supreme Courtroom considers her petition to overturn her conviction for intercourse trafficking conviction.
Comer, nonetheless, declined requests from an lawyer for Maxwell, the longtime affiliate of the late Jeffrey Epstein, to grant her immunity or to ship her questions prematurely.
Pursuant to a movement that garnered bipartisan assist within the committee final month, Comer had subpoenaed Maxwell for a deposition to happen at Federal Correctional Establishment (FCI) Tallahassee on Aug. 11 — although she was quietly moved to Federal Jail Camp (FPC) Bryan in Bryan, Texas, a Bureau of Prisons official confirmed Friday.
“Your testimony is significant to the Committee’s efforts relating to Mr. Jeffrey Epstein, together with the 2007 non-prosecution settlement and the circumstances surrounding Mr. Epstein’s Demise,” Comer stated in a letter to Maxwell on Friday. “These investigative efforts could also be used to tell potential laws to enhance federal efforts to fight intercourse trafficking and reform using non-prosecution agreements and/or plea agreements in sex-crime investigations.”
Maxwell’s lawyer Legal professional David Oscar Markus wrote to the committee on Monday looking for to delay the interview till after the Supreme Courtroom weighs Maxwell’s petition.
Comer agreed to the delay: “On July 30, the U.S. Supreme Courtroom seen that your petition for writ of certiorari will be thought-about at its convention on September 29. In mild of this discover, the Committee is prepared to delay your deposition till a date following the Courtroom’s certiorari dedication,” he wrote.
Comer then rejected the immunity request.
“The Committee is unwilling to grant you congressional immunity pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 6005 at the moment. Additional, whereas the Committee is unwilling to ship you questions prematurely, the Committee will proceed its long-standing observe of partaking in forthright and detailed discussions about scoping,” Comer wrote.
In her enchantment to the Supreme Courtroom, Maxwell argues her conviction violates a nonprosecution settlement Epstein signed with federal prosecutors in 2007. Decrease courts beforehand dominated that the settlement utilized solely to the Southern District of Florida and never the New York district the place Maxwell was sentenced.
Maxwell final week sat for a two-day interview with Deputy Legal professional Common Todd Blanche.
Markus, Maxwell’s lawyer, said that it was a “thorough, complete interview” and that “no individual and no matter have been off-limits,” including: “The reality will come out.”