On Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested it would greatly benefit the nation if Ghislaine Maxwell, the associate of the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, were to come forward and reveal what she knows.
Johnson (R-La.) admitted his uncertainty about Maxwell’s reliability in providing truthful testimony to the House Oversight Committee, which has issued a subpoena for her to testify, and he emphasized that she should continue serving her more than 20-year prison sentence.
Asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday if Maxwell could be trusted, the speaker admitted, “It’s a good question.
“I hope so,” Johnson said. “I hope that she would want to come clean. We certainly are interested in knowing everything that she knows.
“She is convicted. She is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking, and so her character is in some question,” he stated. However, if she desires to come clean now, it would serve the country well, and we are eager to learn every piece of information she possesses.”
A rift among MAGA faithful and President Trump ripped open earlier this month when the Justice Department and FBI concluded that evidence indicated Epstein did not have an “incriminating client list” and that he had in fact killed himself in prison.
On Thursday and Friday, US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche — President Trump’s former defense lawyer — met with Maxwell in Florida for several hours of questioning.
Her lawyer has said she is still mulling whether to testify before the Oversight panel or invoke her Fifth Amendment rights.
Trump has publicly claimed that he hasn’t thought about pardoning her but also stressed, “I am allowed to do it.” Johnson suggested that he would not be in favor of Maxwell getting presidential clemency.
“If you’re asking my opinion, I think 20 years was a pittance. I think she should have a life sentence at least,” Johnson told the show. “Think of all these unspeakable crimes, and as you noted earlier, probably 1,000 victims.
“It’s hard to put into words how evil this was and that she orchestrated it and was a big part of it,” he said. “I think it is an unforgivable thing. So again, not my decision, but I have great pause about that, as any reasonable person would.”
Johnson dealt with the political reverberations over the MAGA rift on Epstein.
Amid the firestorm, Trump publicly lashed out against his base, and Democrats worked to put Johnson on the spot by attempting to force votes compelling the disclosure of the Epstein files.
Last Monday, Democrats on the House Rules Committee, a gatekeeper panel that determines the manner in which most pieces of legislation come up for a vote on the House floor, again attempted to put Republicans on the spot over the kerfuffle.
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The GOP opted to recess the Rules Committee, which effectively froze up the House of Representatives. Johnson decided to send the House home a day early for the August recess as a result.
“What we did do this week is end the chaos in the Rules Committee because the Democrats are trying to use this in a shameless manner for political purposes,” Johnson said Sunday. “Quite obviously, they hijacked the Rules Committee, and they tried to turn it into an Epstein hearing.
“That’s not what the Rules Committee is about.”
