Will Maxwell Be Freed for Epstein Testimony? House Committee Divided Over Pardon Proposal

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform is deliberating whether to recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her testimony that could help implicate Jeffrey Epstein’s other co-conspirators.

However, the committee is split over the decision. Some say the testimony would advance the investigation, while others argue releasing Maxwell, a convicted child trafficker, would be unfair to the victims.

The panel’s chairman, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, has confirmed that members are currently divided over whether to recommend such a move. The Republican leader said he is firmly opposed to a pardon for Maxwell.

“My committee’s split on that. I don’t speak for my committee. I think it looks bad. Honestly, other than Epstein, the worst person in this whole investigation is Maxwell,” Comer said in a statement to Politico.

Democrats have also strongly opposed the recommendation. California Rep. and the committee’s ranking member, Robert Garcia, voiced his dissent in an official statement that read, “It’s outrageous that Republicans on the Oversight Committee are considering a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.”

“She is a s----- abuser who facilitated the r--- of women and children. This is a shameful way to treat survivors. Oversight Democrats are united in opposing any pardon,” Garcia added. Earlier in February, Maxwell appeared virtually before the House Oversight Committee but refused to speak, repeatedly invoking her Fifth Amendment rights.

Her lawyer has already said that she will speak only in exchange for clemency by President Donald Trump.

The longtime associate and former girlfriend of Epstein was convicted in 2021 for recruiting and grooming girls as young as 14. She is currently serving a 20-year sentence at Federal Prison Camp (FPC) Bryan in Texas. Meanwhile, Trump has not ruled out the possibility of a pardon for Maxwell.

Jennifer Freeman, an attorney representing Epstein’s survivors, has reacted to reports of Maxwell’s potential clemency, calling the move offensive. “This is deeply offensive and insulting and a betrayal to the survivors. There is no good-faith basis on which to believe that Ghislaine Maxwell is going to provide credible information,” she said in an interview with CNN.

“She was perjuring herself already and [was] accused of perjury, and she has never expressed any remorse whatsoever for what she did. So why she should be believed? I don’t know. So to give her a pardon in exchange for her ‘cooperation’ is a betrayal to the survivors,” the attorney added.

Ever since the release of the Epstein Files, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has faced mounting pressure to investigate individuals linked to the s– offender. In December 2025, Maxwell filed a habeas corpus petition, signaling that she knows the names of at least 25 associates of Epstein who abused victims and later reached settlements with them.

“The Government could have indicted the 4 named co-conspirators, or any of the 25 men that settled secretly with the lawyers for the [accuser] complainants, but they didn't,” she wrote in her petition.