US Congress will subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell to testify about Jeffrey Epstein amid political firestorm

US Congress will subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned sex trafficker who was a close associate of notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, to testify amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration’s decision not to release its remaining Epstein files.

The Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett introduced a motion to compel Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year-sentence in a Florida prison for crimes related to the Epstein, to testify before the House oversight committee.

The move appears to skirt an announcement early Tuesday that officials from the Department of Justice are also planning to meet with Maxwell.

“We got to send a message to these dirt bags,” Burchett said in a statement posted on X, referring to the list of clients and other Epstein enablers that are assumed to be included in the remaining Epstein files, the details of which are not publicly known.

“We’ve just got to get to the bottom of this thing, folks. It’s four years and we don’t need to tolerate this stuff any more.”

The Epstein issue has plagued the Trump administration as the president’s own supporters buck him and clamor for more information, and as details continue to emerge about Trump’s personal connections with Epstein, who was a friend of his for many years until they fell out.

The issue has also riven Capitol Hill, with not just many Democrats but also Republicans calling for the release of all files. On Tuesday the Republican-led House of Representatives, led by Trump ally Mike Johnson – who recently undermined Trump by calling for the release of all files, only to back down several days later – voted to start its summer holiday early in order to avoid Epstein-related votes planned for Thursday.

Burchett said he’d introduced the motion directing James Comer, chairman of the committee, to authorize and issue a subpoena for Maxwell. Comer was “down with it”, Burchett said. “I believe he’s going to issue the subpoena. He’s a stand-up guy.”

He also acknowledged that he would receive “blow back, and folks up here are going to be mad at me, but ultimately and with all sincerity, I’m gonna answer my creator on this issue”.

Burchett told Axios that he did not consult Trump before calling on the committee to subpoena Maxwell. He has previously written to Comer urging him to bring Maxwell in to testify.

“She’s the last one standing,” he told Axios. “There’s nobody else alive that can tell us anything.”

He also said he he believes Maxwell could “tell us the operation, how it went down, who were the supporters of it ... ultimately I’d like to see justice”.

The announcement came hours after the justice department said it is planning to send Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general, to Florida to meet with Maxwell.

Last week, Trump directed the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to ask a court to release all relevant grand jury testimony in Epstein’s case.

Maxwell attorney David Oscar Markus confirmed on X “that we are in discussions with the government and that Ghislaine will always testify truthfully”, her attorney,

On Tuesday morning, Blanche also released a statement, posted by Bondi, saying that he plans to meet with Maxwell “in the coming days”. Blanche’s statement also defended the department’s early July release, saying it was “as accurate today as it was when it was written”.