Ghislaine Maxwell, the jailed associate of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has agreed to testify under oath before the congressional committee investigating the federal government's handling of the Epstein cases.
Committee chairman James Comer, who is leading the investigation, says Maxwell will speak to the committee virtually on 9 February.
Maxwell's legal team has previously said she would decline to answer questions under her constitutional right to remain silent unless she is granted legal immunity.
Comer, previewing the deposition, stated, her lawyers have been saying she is going to plead the Fifth, referring to the US Fifth Amendment right to decline to speak to authorities.
The announcement comes as the Trump administration continues to come under scrutiny for its handling of the Epstein case. Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and trafficking teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein.
In July, the committee declined to offer Maxwell legal immunity in exchange for her testimony. In August, the committee issued a legal summons to Maxwell, requiring her to submit evidence under oath.
Maxwell's legal team protested, stating that testifying from jail without legal immunity were non-starters and asserted that she cannot risk further criminal exposure in this politically charged environment.
House lawmakers cannot force Maxwell to waive her Fifth Amendment protections, and, despite receiving a letter from her legal team refusing to testify under current conditions, the inquiry moves forward.
The legal team argued that proceeding under these circumstances would merely be political theater, concluding that no new facts would emerge from her testimony.
Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, had previously appealed her conviction to the Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Her only path to early release now rests on a presidential pardon or a successful motion with a federal judge to amend her sentence.
In other developments, the Department of Justice faced a deadline to release all remaining Epstein files, with many remaining redacted under the law protecting victims' identities and ongoing investigations.
The House committee is also considering contempt charges against former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, for refusing to answer questions related to Epstein's investigation.
