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WILL GHISLAINE SING? AUG. 11 DATE SET…

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The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Ghislaine Maxwell to appear for a deposition even as some Republican lawmakers acknowledge they may not be able to trust her testimony.

The panel issued the subpoena requesting a meeting with Maxwell at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tallahassee on Aug. 11, committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky, announced on Wednesday afternoon. The subpoena comes just one day after the committee voted in favor of the subpoena despite calls from President Donald Trump to drop the story.

“The facts and circumstances surrounding both your and Mr. Epstein’s cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny,” Comer wrote in his letter to Maxwell. “While the Justice Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to your and Mr. Epstein’s cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of you and Mr. Epstein.”

Maxwell has become a person of interest after being found guilty of co-conspiring with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to exploit minor girls in 2021.

But even with the subpoena, some Republicans have admitted they may not believe everything she says.

“She is a liar, and she’s a dirtbag,” Rep. Tim Burchett, who introduced the motion to subpoena Maxwell, told reporters on Wednesday. “The one thing we got holding over her head is, if we find out she lies, she goes back to her original sentence, and that’s looking at lifetime. And if she’s looking at maybe parlaying this into reducing her sentence, then we could have some leverage there.”

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., speaks during a television news interview at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, June 14, 2024. | J. Scott Applewhite, Associated Press

The subpoena is the latest escalation in the House to reveal information about Epstein’s operations, which has subsequently left the House in gridlock for days.

House GOP leadership drafted a resolution last week calling for the release of the investigative materials as a way to provide Republican lawmakers with some political cover as Democrats hammer them on the subject. But that resolution is nonbinding and largely symbolic, prompting criticism from some rank-and-file members.

That anger only began to grow when House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said there would not be a vote on any Epstein-related measure this week, instead saying the Trump administration needs to be given time to process credible materials for publication.

Johnson told reporters on Wednesday he supports the Oversight Committee’s motion to seek a subpoena, but echoed similar concerns about Maxwell’s credibility.

“I will note the obvious concern, the caveat that Chairman Comer and I and everyone has: Could she be counted on to tell the truth? Is she a credible witness?” Johnson said. “I mean, this is a person who’s been sentenced to many, many years in prison for terrible, unspeakable, conspiratorial acts and acts against innocent young people.”

Comer said the Justice Department is cooperating with the subpoena request.

In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell givers her statement in federal court, in New York, Tuesday, June 28, 2022. Maxwell has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. | Elizabeth Williams, Associated Press
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