If Republican members of Congress think they're expert enough to question Ghislaine Maxwell, they have another think coming, according to a legal reporter who covered the Jeffery Epstein partner's trial in depth.
Business Insider's Jacob Shamsian wrote an extensive thread calling the "current discourse" about questioning Epstein's convicted accomplice to be from "bizarro land."
"Of course, I want answers. I have written to Maxwell in the hopes that she'd talk to me (no luck)," he confessed.
But he questioned if it's worth Congress — which on Wednesday agreed to subpoena the convict — jeopardizing Maxwell's criminal appeal just to get her to testify. Then, even if she does answer questions, he asked how anyone could trust what she says.
"She has every incentive in the world to get out of her 20-year sentence," Shamsian said.
He also recalled that Maxwell was accused of lying under oath that she didn't know about Epstein's sex trafficking. She was charged with perjury, but the case never went anywhere because it would have required the victims to come forward for a second trial to fact-check her.
"You can try to corroborate or rebut what she says based on the vast universe of evidence collected in the criminal and civil cases involving Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell," Shamsian continued. The problem, however, is that Attorney General Pam Bondi fired "half of the Epstein/Maxwell prosecution team."
He also questioned whether Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche or anyone in the House Oversight Committee has "familiarized themselves with all the details of her 10-year legal saga in the past week and are ready to talk to her? I don't buy it. Epstein's many victims aren't even in the loop!"
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) said that approximately 1,000 FBI agents were tasked with reviewing all the "millions of pages of documents" from the investigation to identify mentions of Trump's name.
Shamsian said that he wants answers like anyone else, "but the way it's being handled, I only see it blowing up, sowing more mistrust and confusion," while failing to get any answers or even asking the right questions.
He also questioned whether there would be any transparency in the meeting between Maxwell and Blanche.
The single easiest way to deliver answers about Epstein "would be to simply release the files. They already had an army of FBI agents do redactions," Shamsian asserted.
He also wants to see financial transcripts, text messages, emails and other documents.
"These are the things that will tell us about his life, what he did, how he did it, and who else was involved. Why focus on a politically and legally dubious talk with Ghislaine Maxwell?" asked Shamsian.
He also noted that far-right firebrand Steve Bannon is sitting on 15 hours of footage of Epstein. Congress could subpoena all of that video.
