{"id":21724,"date":"2026-04-22T21:17:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/oversight-members-split-over-whether-to-pardon-ghislaine-maxwell-committee-chair-says\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:17:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:17:25","slug":"oversight-members-split-over-whether-to-pardon-ghislaine-maxwell-committee-chair-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/oversight-members-split-over-whether-to-pardon-ghislaine-maxwell-committee-chair-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Oversight members split over whether to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell, committee chair says"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Members on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are divided over whether President Donald Trump should pardon Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation in the panel\u2019s Epstein investigation, chair James Comer said in an interview Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Maxwell, who was deposed by the Oversight Committee as the sole convicted accomplice in the Epstein sex trafficking scheme, previously invoked her Fifth Amendment right in declining to answer the panel\u2019s questions. Her lawyer has said that she would only speak if granted clemency \u2014 a power available solely to Trump, who has not ruled out the prospect of a pardon.<\/p>\n

When asked whether he believed it was a favorable deal to issue a pardon in return for Maxwell\u2019s testimony, Comer said, \u201cA lot of people do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy committee\u2019s split on that,\u201d he added, declining to name who on the panel supported granting a pardon. \u201cI don\u2019t speak for my committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comer himself wasn’t in favor. \u201cI think it looks bad,\u201d he said. \u201cHonestly, other than Epstein, the worst person in this whole investigation is Maxwell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the Oversight panel\u2019s top Democrat, emphasized that Committee Democrats unanimously opposed a pardon for Maxwell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a huge step backwards, and, quite frankly, so disrespectful to the survivors,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cShe is a known abuser. She is a known liar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the DOJ or Oversight Republicans are out there trying to negotiate some sort of pardon that is \u2026 not only a huge slap in the face to this investigation, to anyone, to the American public,\u201d he added. \u201cIt’s a part of a massive cover up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressure has been mounting on the Justice Department to pursue new prosecutions in the Epstein case, particularly after the United Kingdom arrested former Prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and former ambassador Peter Mandelson for crimes related to their association with the disgraced financier.<\/p>\n

The Oversight Committee’s probe\u2019s work has been complicated by the fact that Maxwell is unwilling to answer questions and the central figure, Epstein, died behind bars years ago. Maxwell\u2019s lawyer David Oscar Markus told Blue Light News<\/u><\/a> in an extended interview last month that he believed there was a good chance his client would ultimately be pardoned by the president.<\/p>\n

Markus said he reached out to then-deputy attorney general Todd Blanche last year to help facilitate Maxwell\u2019s interview with the Department of Justice. She was granted limited immunity for that two-day conversation and moved to a minimum security prison camp shortly afterward.<\/p>\n

In her interview with Blanche, she emphasized that she had not seen Trump engage in impropriety with Epstein. The president\u2019s relationship with Epstein has been the source of much intrigue, as Trump has maintained the two had a falling out years ago.<\/p>\n

Garcia said the Oversight Committee should investigate why and how Maxwell was moved to a different facility after her interview with Blanche.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are divided over whether President Donald Trump should pardon Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation in the panel\u2019s Epstein investigation, chair James Comer said in an interview Wednesday. Maxwell, who was deposed by the Oversight Committee as the sole convicted accomplice […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}