WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said the panel is split over whether to seek a presidential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation in its investigation of Jeffrey Epstein. Comer, a Republican, said he personally opposes a pardon.

He said "a lot of people support the idea of Maxwell receiving a pardon from President Trump in exchange for her cooperation in the committee's investigation," and described the committee as "split" on the question. "Other than Epstein, the worst person in this whole investigation is Maxwell," he said.

Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach, the top Democrat on the committee, condemned the idea and said Democrats on the panel are uniformly opposed. "It's outrageous that Republicans on the Oversight Committee are considering a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell," Garcia said. "She is a sexual abuser who facilitated the rape of women and children."

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in a Texas federal prison for sex trafficking crimes connected to Epstein. She is challenging her 2021 conviction on five counts related to the sex trafficking of minors. At trial, she was accused of participating in the abuse of one victim. Maxwell declined to answer the committee's questions during a video deposition in February from the Texas federal prison where she is serving her sentence.

Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, said she would offer the "unfiltered truth" if granted clemency by Trump. Trump has not said he is considering a pardon for Maxwell but has declined to rule it out when asked by reporters.

Epstein abused more than 1,000 girls and young women over the span of decades. Around 2006, he negotiated a plea deal with federal prosecutors in south Florida allowing him to serve 13 months in a Palm Beach County jail with work release to settle claims he abused dozens of high school girls. Following investigative reporting by the Miami Herald, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York brought new sex charges against him in July 2019. Epstein died in federal custody in August 2019. Maxwell is the only other person who has been charged in connection with his crimes.

The House Oversight Committee has deposed Les Wexner, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in its Epstein investigation. The committee has not deposed Trump.

The Department of Justice released millions of pages of documents from its Epstein investigations in response to the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act, signed into law last year. The document release led to criminal inquiries in the United Kingdom into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Peter Mandelson over allegations they provided secret government information to Epstein. So far, the released files have not led to any publicly known criminal investigations in the U.S.