Just after Christmas last year, Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on five out of six charges, all in association with the human trafficking operation she largely ran for Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell was the one procuring children, teenagers and young women for Epstein. She groomed them and often began abusing them too, then she would give them to Epstein and his associates. Maxwell will be sentenced on June 28. Ahead of her sentencing, Maxwell’s lawyers have issued a pathetic statement to the court about how Ghislaine never would have done any of that if not for her father being mean to her.

When Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial neared its end, the British socialite’s lawyers had their work cut out for them. For weeks, prosecutors had painted Maxwell as a member of the elite who carried out unspeakable acts to maintain her charmed life with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. They presented abundant evidence that Maxwell lured girls, some just 14 years old, into Epstein’s orbit for him to sexually abuse – while carrying herself as an untouchable “lady of the house”. In the prosecution’s telling, Maxwell didn’t just do bad things: she was gleefully committed to doing them.

After the prosecution rested its case, Maxwell’s lawyers were left with few options for mounting a defense. They tried to make her look likable, and elicited fawning testimony from several of Maxwell’s former employees, as part of this effort.

The likability strategy didn’t appear to work, as Maxwell was found guilty on 29 December, but her attorneys have now launched another humanization campaign, to secure leniency when she is sentenced on 28 June. But their strategy has shifted from likability to pathos – casting her as an abused girl turned traumatized woman who was susceptible to Epstein’s influence and thus led into her crimes by him.

“Her relationship with Epstein began at a moment of extreme vulnerability [in] Ghislaine’s life after the tragic death of our father. He (our father) was a powerful and dominant figure,” several of her siblings said in sentencing paperwork. “And as elder siblings we witnessed our father taking Ghislaine under his wing whereby she became over-dependent on his approval and vulnerable to his frequent rapid mood swings, huge rages and rejections. This led her to becoming very vulnerable to abusive and powerful men who would be able to take advantage of her innate good nature.

“It is striking that Ghislaine did not show any perverse behavior before she met Epstein. Nor did she show any after leaving him, which she eventually managed to do,” they said. “The effect of our father’s psychologically abusive treatment of her, foreshadowed Epstein’s own ability to exploit, manipulate and control her.”

[From The Guardian]

I have no doubt that Robert Maxwell was a POS, but psychologically, Ghislaine’s argument makes no sense to me. Ghislaine’s behavior is that of the manipulative favored child who understands what buttons to push to get her way. She didn’t lack agency in her relationship with Epstein – in fact, she took it upon herself to organize his schedule, life, money and victims. He didn’t ASK her to do that, she volunteered because she wanted to stay in his life and make him happy. I hope no one buys Ghislaine’s bullsh-t – this “she’s a victim too” argument is horsesh-t from start to finish. Go for the maximum sentence.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Instar.