Ghislaine Maxwell offers testimony for immunity

What happened

Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell offered Tuesday to testify to Congress about her relationship with her late boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein as the White House struggles to contain the fallout from its handling of the Epstein case.

President Donald Trump, who is widely believed to be mentioned multiple times in the investigation files, said Tuesday he fell out with his onetime friend Epstein because the child sex offender repeatedly "took people that worked for me" at Mar-a-Lago's spa. Trump said the women he "stole" included Virginia Giuffre, the best-known victim of Epstein's sex-trafficking ring. Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, said in a 2016 deposition that Maxwell lured her away from Mar-a-Lago in 2000 with promises of travel and "good money" for massage work.

Who said what

Maxwell's lawyer David Markus told the House Oversight Committee that his client would "cooperate" with its subpoena if she were assured of "formal immunity" from questioning and given a list of questions beforehand, among other conditions, to avoid "further criminal exposure." Without these requested assurances or a presidential grant of clemency, he said, Maxwell would invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The Oversight Committee "quickly rejected that condition," insisting "immunity will not even be considered," The Washington Post said. Trump told reporters on Monday he was "allowed" to pardon Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence, "but right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it."

What next?

Maxwell has had meetings with top Justice Department officials about her role in the Epstein case and is appealing her sex trafficking conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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