The ex-partner of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, refused this Monday, February 9, to answer in a question session before the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which is investigating the convicted sex offender's links with other powerful figures globally. The woman, the only one convicted in the sex trafficking plot, took advantage of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution to remain silent.

First modification: 02/09/2026 - 18:58 Last modification: 02/09/2026 - 20:17

As her defense had anticipated, the accomplice and co-author – according to victims' complaints – in Jeffrey Epstein's sexual crimes plot, Ghislaine Maxwell, refused to answer an interrogation before the House of Representatives committee investigating the case.

The woman sentenced to 20 years in prison continues to remain silent about how politicians, tycoons and businessmen mentioned in Epstein's files would be involved in the sex trafficking network of women and girls. Some of them, survivors who have narrated that the abuse occurred when they were minors.

According to the documents that the US Department of Justice has declassified, although not in their entirety, the files mention figures such as the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, the former Prince Andrew of England, the technology magnate, Bill Gates, the former president Bill Clinton, among others.

However, all of them claim not to have participated in the sexual crimes nor to have been aware of the aberrations on the part of Epstein, whom they frequented on multiple occasions, as detailed in the documents.

The pedophile was found dead in his cell in 2019, according to authorities by suicide, before the trial against him on charges such as sex trafficking and conspiracy, although he had already been convicted in 2008 for soliciting prostitution from a minor. Since his death, there has been pressure from a large part of the public and Democrats for all case files to be published.

Declassifying this information was one of Trump's main promises in the campaign to return to the White House and although the Department of Justice under his mandate later delayed the publication of the reports, he was finally forced to do so last December when the deadline established by Congress expired.

Read alsoEpstein Files: Gates claims she only attended dinners with the pedophile, while Trump asks to turn the page

"It is very clear that he is campaigning to obtain a pardon"

In an attempt to clarify the case, which has spread to countries around the world, after members of politics and royalty were involved, legislators aim to find more information about people related to the abuses. For this, Maxwell's testimony is key.

But the woman has been trying to have her conviction overturned, arguing that she was wrongfully convicted. The Supreme Court rejected his appeal last year, but in December he asked a federal judge in New York to consider what his lawyers describe as "substantial new evidence" that his trial was tainted by constitutional violations.

A lawyer for Maxwell cited that request and also assured lawmakers that she would be willing to testify that neither President Donald Trump nor former President Bill Clinton are guilty of wrongdoing in their dealings with Epstein, according to Democratic and Republican members of Congress who emerged from the closed-door meeting.

"It's very clear that he is campaigning for clemency," said Democratic Representative Melanie Stansbury.

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The committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, said it was "very disappointing" that Maxwell declined to participate in the testimony.

Comer subpoenaed Maxwell to testify in 2025, but his attorneys have consistently responded to the Committee that he will not respond to any questioning. Still, Comer was forced to hold the deposition, amid pressure for the Committee to enforce subpoenas on former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, after Comer threatened them with contempt of Congress charges.

Both agreed to give sworn statements at the end of this month.

Maxwell's refusal to respond to an interrogation and the Clintons' foreseeable appearance come at a time when the Justice Department has made public millions of internal documents related to Epstein, increasing scrutiny of Trump and other men of power inside and outside the United States.

Read alsoFrom Musk and Gates to European royalty: Epstein spoke in the ears of the powerful

With Reuters and AP

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