'Real Housewives' star may hold key to unlocking Ghislaine Maxwell's prison secrets: Dem

A top Democrat had a direct message for former "Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" star Jen Shah, who was recently released from the same prison as Ghislaine Maxwell.

Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) told CNN anchor Pamela Brown that House leaders want to talk to Shah, who recently sat down with People and broke her silence for the first time since she was behind bars. In the interview, Shah described Maxwell's lack of remorse for her sex trafficking victims, and now members of the House Oversight Committee want more information.

Brown asked Garcia, who is a fan of the popular Bravo series and has appeared on the network's "Watch What Happens Live" show, what lawmakers were planning next.

"Well, I never thought that my interest and love for the Real Housewives franchise and my work on Oversight would collide. But actually, we reached out to Jen Shah yesterday," Garcia said. "I'm not sure if that's been reported or not, but we actually reached out to her through a representative. We actually want to talk to her. Look, at the end of the day, she is someone that's interacted with Ghislaine Maxwell in that prison. She clearly has information about what Ghislaine Maxwell was saying to others, and we have not had access to folks in that prison that have been interacting with Ghislaine Maxwell. So we think that might have important information. And so if she is watching, please respond. We definitely want to talk. I think she's got critical information."

Shah had described the moments she spoke with Maxwell, a former confidant and co-conspirator of late financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, at the Texas federal facility.

"I had interactions with her, limited interactions with her," Shah recalled during the wide-ranging interview. "I mean, I worked at recreation, right? And so she would come in and work at recreation, or I mean, to work out."

"Um, but her experience there is, uh, it's very different from anyone else's, even Elizabeth [Holmes] and I, um, she is treated very differently there," Shah added. "And honestly, I chose that. I chose to have very limited interaction with her."

Garcia said lawmakers were aiming to learn more from Shah, adding that "we're engaged in a communication with her representatives. And we're hopeful that she'll come and speak with us."