A growing number of Republicans and MAGA diehards are speaking out against Donald Trump pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell in return for her cooperation after some GOP lawmakers were open to the idea.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer indicated that at least some committee members backed pardoning pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s accomplice to learn what she knew, according to an interview with Politico.
Comer later made clear that he himself was against a pardon, but some Republicans, upon hearing about the internal debate, lashed out at the idea that any member would support such a move.
“There should be NO pardons for Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for any testimony,” wrote GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna on X.
In an interview on NewsNation, she said point-blank, “she’s not getting a pardon.”
MAGA ally turned fierce Trump critic Marjorie Taylor Greene also sounded off against pardoning the convicted sex trafficker, who is serving 20 years in prison.
“I am shocked that some of my former Republican colleagues on the Oversight Committee are supporting pardoning Ghislaine Maxwell,” she wrote. “The Epstein survivors are adamantly against her receiving a pardon as she was one of their main abusers next to Jeffrey Epstein and they say she is a serial liar.”
Greene warned that if Trump pardoned Maxwell, his former associate, “it sets up a very potential quid pro quo.”
“She will owe Trump and she will lie to protect people he ask her to,” the former Georgia congresswoman wrote on X. “Instead the DOJ and local prosecutors with jurisdiction should be prosecuting the rich powerful elites who raped and trafficked these brave survivors when they were just teenagers and young vulnerable women.”
Her posts put her in line with Democratic lawmakers who immediately came out against the pardon.
Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee were divided on the option, with some indulging the idea of Trump granting Maxwell a pardon in exchange for her cooperation, Politico reported.
When asked whether he believed it was a favorable deal to issue a pardon in return for Maxwell’s testimony, Comer said, “A lot of people do.”
After the article was published, he clarified that he was against her pardon but did not dispute that some members were considering it.
Maxwell appeared from prison before Comer’s committee in February as part of their investigation into the convicted sex offender and the handling of the Epstein documents.
However, she instead invoked the 5th Amendment to avoid self-incrimination and refused to answer lawmakers’ questions.
At the same time, her lawyer has repeatedly appealed to Trump for a pardon and said she would be willing to share the full truth if granted clemency first.
Asked about it by reporters last year, Trump did not rule out pardoning Maxwell. He claimed he had not actually thought about pardoning her and would have to “take a look at it.”
At another point last summer, when asked about the convicted sex trafficker amid the uproar over his administration turning tail and refusing to release the Epstein files, Trump did not weigh in on whether he would pardon Maxwell, but he acknowledged he has that power as president.
