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Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will testify before Congress next month.
Judges made separate announcements Wednesday rejected House lawmakers are asking the court to appoint a special master to oversee the Trump administration’s ongoing release of documents from Epstein’s dossier.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Cuomo announced at the hearing that Maxwell would comply with a subpoena from the committee, which has been leading the investigation into the federal government’s handling of the Epstein investigation. She will appear virtually and her lawyers have previously said Maxwell will defend the fifth court to avoid questions from lawmakers.
House members could not force Maxwell to give up his Fifth Amendment protections, and Maxwell, A person serving a 20-year sentence, is seeking a clemency deal from the Trump administration. Congress cannot pardon her, and oversight committees have ruled out granting her immunity from testimony. The president has yet to answer whether he would pardon Maxwell if he reached his desk, but he has. refuses to rule out the possibility.
Epstein Died in a Manhattan detention center in 2019. In 2008, he was found guilty of soliciting a minor for prostitution in a “sweetheart” plea deal and spent time in federal custody under a second criminal investigation for sex trafficking of minors.
Throughout 2025, the Trump administration was involved in the Epstein investigation scandal, prompting Congress to launch an investigation.
Senior White House officials like J.D. Vance, as well as political appointees at the Justice Department and FBI, have publicly supported the release of the full extent of the evidence and other information the government has amassed about the billionaire pedophile accused of running a sex trafficking ring for minors while cultivating a powerful network of friends and business associates through his various activities.
But over the summer, the government remained tight-lipped. The White House held its first event to distribute “phase one” of the Epstein documents release to a group of conservative influencers; phase two never materialized, and Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in a joint statement with the FBI that there would be no further releases.
The resulting accusations of a cover-up quickly spread online and in traditional and new media. Strongly recommended to vote A vast majority of Americans believed in July 2025 that the Trump administration was now covering up evidence in the case that might have incriminated powerful Americans.
Lawmakers, Democrats and Republicans joined forces to pass legislation forcing the government to release the documents by December 19. The bill passed despite direct lobbying by Donald Trump and the White House against its passage and insults to Republicans who insisted the investigation was worth pursuing. He has also repeatedly insisted that only Democrats would be exposed by the documents, despite his own long-standing relationship with the billionaire.
Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing and said he kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club.
A trove of documents and photos soon began trickling out of Congress, released in batches by lawmakers on oversight groups. Media attention also focused on the case wall street journal An eye-opening note purportedly written by the president to Epstein before his 2008 conviction wished the pedophile a happy birthday and hinted at a “secret” the two allegedly shared; the note featured the outline of a naked woman.
Trump denied writing the note to Epstein and denied that the signature on an image later obtained by the oversight committee was his. He has not been charged with criminal misconduct in the case and has strongly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Yet the president shockingly admitted to reporters on Air Force One last year that the reason for the dissolution of his friendship with Epstein was the financier’s success in hiring one of his eventual victims, Virginia Giuffre, out of her previous job at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
While the Justice Department has released some of the documents, the Dec. 19 deadline has passed without full disclosure. Administrators said they are reviewing the documents before future release, a move that prompted a push to appoint a special master to oversee their release.