WASHINGTON:Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell will be questioned behind closed doors by the US Congress on Monday, though she’s expected to invoke her right to not answer questions.
Maxwell, currently serving 20 years in prison for trafficking girls to the disgraced financier Epstein, will face questions from prison via videolink, in a deposition by the House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee.
Though no new US prosecutions are expected after the latest dump of government files on Epstein, numerous political and business leaders have fallen into scandal or resigned as their ties to the convicted sex criminal were revealed.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee is probing Epstein’s connections to powerful figures and how information about his crimes was handled.
Maxwell, however, is expected to invoke her right to not incriminate herself, guaranteed in the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor. His extensive ties to the world’s rich and powerful, especially after he was released in 2009, have become politically explosive across the globe.
He died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking children in what was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell’s lawyers have pushed for Congress to grant her legal immunity in order to testify in the deposition, but lawmakers refused.
Without that, her legal team said she would invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
“Proceeding under these circumstances would serve no other purpose than pure political theater,” her lawyers said in a letter.
Though the deposition will occur behind closed doors, Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, published a letter of the questions he intended to ask Maxwell even if she refuses to answer.
Some touch on Trump’s ties to Epstein and Maxwell.
Others focus on four “co-conspirators” as well as 25 other men who allegedly “sexually abused minors at Epstein’s island.”
One of the questions asks: “Why do you believe they were not indicted?“
The Trump administration has already come under criticism for its handling of her case.
Last year Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison in Texas after meeting twice with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who previously served as US President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
Trump himself was a longtime Epstein associate, but has not been called to testify by the Oversight Committee, which is led by members of his Republican Party.
Trump has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein’s activities.
Also expected to be deposed by the committee are former president Bill Clinton and his wife, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, both Democrats.
The Clintons have called for their depositions to be held publicly to prevent Republicans from politicizing their testimony.
US Congress to depose Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell
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US Congress to depose Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell
- Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell will be questioned behind closed doors by the US Congress on Monday, though she’s expected to invoke her right to not answer questions
US says Mexican cartel drones breached Texas airspace
- Drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats
- US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military
HOUSTON: The Trump administration said Wednesday that Mexican cartel drones caused the temporary closure of a Texas airport, but some Democratic lawmakers pushed back, suggesting US military activity was responsible for the disruptive shutdown.
The report of the drone breach comes some five months into a US military campaign targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats, and could provide a pretext for President Donald Trump to follow through on his threats to expand the strikes to land.
Trump has specifically threatened to attack cartels inside Mexico, which said it had “no information” on drones at the border.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late Tuesday the airspace over the Texas border city of El Paso would be shut to all aircraft for 10 days, citing unspecified national “security reasons,” only to lift the closure after less than 24 hours.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on X that the FAA and the Defense Department “acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion,” adding: “The threat has been neutralized, and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.”
A US administration official meanwhile said the breach was by “Mexican cartel drones,” and that US forces “took action to disable the drones,” without providing specifics.
But Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar, whose district includes El Paso, questioned the Trump administration’s explanation, saying it was “not what we in Congress have been told.”
“The information coming from the administration does not add up and it’s not the information that I was able to gather overnight and this morning,” Escobar told journalists.
And top Democratic lawmakers from the House Committee on Transportation suggested the Pentagon may have been responsible for the situation, saying defense policy legislation allows the US military to “act recklessly in the public airspace.”
The lawmakers called for a solution that ensures “the Department of Defense will not jeopardize safety and disrupt the freedom to travel.”
- War against ‘narco-terrorists’ -
US media also reported that the El Paso airspace closure may have been caused by the US military, with CNN saying the shutdown was the result of Pentagon plans to use a counter-drone laser without coordinating with the FAA.
The Pentagon referred questions on the closure to the FAA, which said when it announced the move that “no pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas” covered by the restrictions and warned of potentially “deadly force” if aircraft were deemed a threat.
It updated its guidance Wednesday morning, saying on X that the closure was lifted.
Trump’s administration insists it is effectively at war with “narco-terrorists,” carrying out strikes on alleged traffickers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, while the US president has repeatedly said he plans to expand the strikes to land.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum opposes US military intervention in her country but has so far managed to negotiate a fine diplomatic line with Trump.
She has stepped up extradition of cartel leaders to the United States and reinforced border cooperation amid tariff threats from Trump, for whom curbing illegal migration from Mexico was a key election promise.
Sheinbaum told a news conference Wednesday that she had “no information on the use of drones at the border,” but that her government was investigating.
The United States began carrying out strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in September, a campaign that has killed at least 130 people and destroyed dozens of vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean.
US officials have not provided definitive evidence that the vessels are involved in drug trafficking, prompting heated debate about the legality of the operations, which experts say amount to extrajudicial killings.
Trump also ordered a shocking special forces raid in Caracas at the beginning of January to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, whom Washington accused of leading a drug cartel.
