I’ll admit it, I was worried about Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial, especially after I read some of Vanity Fair’s coverage of the federal case against Maxwell. As it turns out, the feds understood the assignment – the trial was not about the larger scope of crimes Maxwell committed with Jeffrey Epstein. The prosecution kept a limited scope for crimes they could prove in court, and that strategy was the right one. After five days of deliberations, the jury convicted Ghislaine Maxwell on five out of six charges brought against her.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the former companion to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, was convicted on Wednesday of conspiring with him for at least a decade to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls.
A federal jury in Manhattan found Ms. Maxwell, 60, the daughter of a British media mogul, guilty of sex trafficking and four of the five other charges against her. She was acquitted of one count of enticing a minor to travel across state lines to engage in an illegal sexual act.
Ms. Maxwell’s trial was widely seen as the courtroom reckoning that Mr. Epstein never had. Mr. Epstein, who was arrested in July 2019 at the age of 66, killed himself in a Manhattan jail cell the following month, the medical examiner ruled, while awaiting his own trial on sex trafficking charges. Ms. Maxwell was arrested a year later.
Judge Nathan did not set a date for Ms. Maxwell to be sentenced. On the most serious of the counts for which she was convicted — sex trafficking of minors — she could face up to 40 years in prison. Another count carries a potential 10-year sentence, and the three others, all conspiracy counts, carry sentences of up to five years each.
Ms. Maxwell also faces a separate trial, in the same court, on two counts of perjury, stemming from 2016 depositions she gave in a lawsuit related to Mr. Epstein.
According to the Times, Maxwell barely reacted to the verdict, all she did was sit still as the verdict was read, then she touched her face and drank some water, then briefly spoke to one of her lawyers. As for sentencing… my guess is that the judge didn’t immediately set a sentencing date because federal prosecutors know that there are still deals to be made potentially. There are still so many questions about Maxwell’s activities and finances, as well as Jeffrey Epstein’s activities and finances. Not to mention all of the other powerful men who were “given” trafficked girls and women by Epstein and Maxwell. Ghislaine still has cards to play if she does want to make a deal on sentencing. Speaking of, I can only imagine Prince Andrew’s sweat glands were working overtime yesterday.
Photos courtesy of Getty, Backgrid and WENN.
Good riddance and she better take down all those men with her.
I hope that Ghislaine Maxwell takes a lot of men down with her. I suspect that she might be operating on borrowed time though, and I suspect her instinct will be to remain silent. I’ve very glad that they at least were able to get Maxwell, and I hope that this feels like a little bit of justice for her victims.
I’m curious what kinda security they’re giving her to ensure she’s alive long enough to make it to sentencing negotiations.
If she were going to take anyone down she would have done so already. Going to trial is expensive and risky. She could have made an incredible plea deal.
I’m surprised she’s lived this long.
Agreed.
they sealed the documents the men are well protected. She will rot in prison and keep her yap shut is my guess. Then quietly get paroled when everyone forgets about her.
She won’t. Her daddy issues run deeper than the Mariana Trench. She lives to please and serve the powerful daddy archetype, and that was the wound that consumed her entire life. You think she’ll change anything now? Uh, no.
I agree Sushiroll. Her need to please daddy issues run too deep. She won’t talk.
It’s a good day for justice and for ending a monarchy
Amen!!!!
I’m waiting until she is sentenced to decide if this is justice.
Hope Andy is no longer getting any sleep.
I suspect his sweating problem is cured.
Cured as in bacon: no moisture, just salt.
BBC News sucks, they had Alan Dershowitz on talking about a case, and not one mentioned, that he was using teenager girls that Jeffery made available for dirty old men like him.
Online they have a story of all her family/childhood trauma. It eventually has a small aside about ‘obviously this doesn’t excuse what she did’ but it’s some way in.
@SarahCS, Anna Pasternak tried that bs angle in the Epstein’s Shadow documentary. It failed.
@Jan: The BBC put out a statement today acknowledging that they should not have put Dershowitz on their broadcast. I don’t understand how they couldn’t have known that he was part of the Esptein/Maxwell circle and that he has been accused of having sex with trafficked girls.
Good thing they rectified that a bit–I was shocked yesterday when I read their coverage. And I wondered if this were due to protecting powerful British men/ not caring about girls from broken homes. Nauseating.
Good.
And now I don’t want to hear any more “feminist backlash” that she shouldn’t have to pay for Epstein’s crimes. She’s guilty. And her victims even said she was a worse predator than Epstein. Still hoping she will spill the beans on others who were involved.
Do people really think that? She’s not paying for Epstein’s crimes—she’s paying for her own.
I wish she’d sing like a canary, but she might not even make it that long…
I’m sorry is that a straw man? There’s been zero “feminist backlash” saying anything of the sort. Sure there are sighs here and there that *of course* the only one who pays the price is the woman while all the men skate free, but that’s not even close to saying she shouldn’t be held accountable. It’s just a “this sucks that’s she’s the only one to be held accountable.” But we can still hope more dominoes will fall.
+1
+1
Yes! To more (male) dominoes falling.
Virginia Giuffre has a new interview in the news and she’s very clear that Maxwell skated by for years because she is a woman and doesn’t look like the typical sexual predator. If only people would focus on Justice for victims instead of using every chance to argue about gender inequality.
🙄 If only people would focus on justice for victims instead of manufacturing every chance to troll (or get their imaginary friends to troll) about “wokeness/feminism going 2 far”. That is not what this is about.
Hmm why so defensive? Being that the entire defense of Maxwell was that she simply a scapegoat for Epstein and other men, enough said.
@Jules wholeheartedly agree about her guilt and just punishment. I hadn’t heard about victims saying she was worse-that’s scary and sad to process. I still couldn’t help but seethe as I read this though that the men got off and she got caught and I’m frustrated that she won’t be around long enough to penalize the other men involved in this. Also, WHY did it take so long for this to happen? Why does it seem no one got serious about justice until a less “powerful” female was around to take the fall? I SO hate when women get the brunt or all the penalty for wrongdoings of many men!😖
She’s not going to prison for more than 5 years. She’s going to sing like a canary. I bet she knows where all the videos and recordings are and she will be using it to reduce her sentence. This is going to bring down a ton of politicians, rich dudes, and officials. Can’t wait! This will be a Biden DOJ and FBI win. I can’t wait.
Fingers crossed you are right, @KFG, but I expect GM to name zero names. No elite will go down for complicity in Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, unless it’s Pedo A (who’s already screwed) or some minor player, a token.
Remember: the FBI already has all the names. They were first into Epstein’s island lair after the bust, and they immediately cleaned out all the evidence. Where did it go?
@TEAMMEG, Exactly and precisely! The FBI which is the investigative arm of the DOJ. DOJ, headed at the time by William Barr. The FBI flew in there and stripped the place bare like a cleaning crew. Even if Ms. Maxwell takes a vow of silence, they shouldn’t need her, there is enough actual evidence that can be forensically examined. Where is it and what’s being done with it?
I hope she gets sentenced to the max. Anyone who abused these then girls and facilitated their abuse needs to be held accountable.
I hope this evil woman spills every little secret about every one of those vile men. Times up! Let them all pay for the pain and hurt they’ve caused.
There’s a funny meme going round today. It has a picture of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell and reads “true love is when you finish each other sentences”, Lol.
Seriously, though, I hope she doesn’t appear dead after accidently stabbing herself to death whilst shaving.
I saw that one. 🤣🤣🤣❤️❤️❤️🤣🤣🤣
Omg that’s genius 🤣🤣🤣🤣
The men involved in the sex trafficking must face justice she can’t be the only one paying for it
My thoughts exactly. Very happy she was found guilty, but she wasn’t trafficking girls into the void. They had clients! They need to find them.
@Woke, there were comments on Twitter echoing the same. The men should have to pay for their crimes and not only hold the female accountable.
I hope this is just the start. Bring them down!!
Agreed. Glad she’s convicted but there are many men involved that need to pay as well. She trafficked girls for clients. Those clients need to be prosecuted.
The women they victimized have waited a long time for some accountability. Nothing will ever make up for what happened to them and what was taken, but it’s something.
I think the most damning were the testimonies of the two former employees and all those photos. They really told a different story than the one the defense was trying to sell.
{Pictures Prince Andrew, squirming in one grand house and the breakfast table conversation between the FK and FQC in another…}
Although I am happy she will pay for her actions, I am angry it is always the women who face time. Why are the men off the hook? They knew they were having sex with minors. They knew there was no consent yet they did it anyway.
Ghislaine, do yourself a favour and burn it all to the ground. Take them with you, you’ll be in jail for the rest of your life anyway.
Well that would seem to be up to Guislaine, wouldn’t it? She can spill everything she knows and bring them down. So far, she’s appeared unwilling to do anything like that, so if is ends up being the woman who goes to jail and the men don’t face accountability, that’s 100% on her.
It’s not up to her. The survivors probably know the identity of the men who raped them or could identify some of them, and we all know the infamous list of those who associated with Epstein.
Epstein is only off the hook because he killed himself (or was killed) – he wasn’t going to have it easy like the first time. I suppose Maxwell could get “off the hook” the same way.
I can’t with the number of people online that are trying to make her exempt from responsibility for this.
She groomed CHILDREN and handed them over to wealthy predators and then tried to make people believe that the victims wanted it. She thought she was protected by the same wealth and privilege she’d grown up with and for a long time she was. That none of the men who decided to partake of her services will ever see the inside of a courtroom is an outrage, but it doesn’t absolve her of being guilty of being a willing accomplice.
I hope she spends whatever sentence she gets feeling frightened and vulnerable and always looking over her shoulder and it still won’t be a tenth of the trauma she inflicted on these women.
Yeah, not only did she actively and willingly groom children, she also actively and willingly sought out children from broken homes, children who already were victims of sexual abuse, children who tried to self medicate. She avoided children who were more protected and cared for socially.
Exactly. She wasn’t just a bystander in all of this.
There was evidence presented that she also sexually abused a number of victims as well.
Exactly. Her crimes were outrageous, predatory and evil. No excuses.
I hope she gets the longest prison sentence possible and that the authorities use their power to make prison very uncomfortable or less so for her, to get her to talk about the abusers she was grooming these children for.
Love your idea, Zaylina. Keep her in prison, keep her uncomfortable and make life hell for her until she names every single one of those criminal predators. Why should the authorities have to bribe and cajole her into naming names? I’m so sick of the worst of society being catered to. She names them or she literally dies in prison. Her choice.
Doesn’t matter if she names anybody. She would have to have some type of proof to back it up. Just the word of a co-conspirator/convicted trafficker isn’t enough for any type of action.
She was an adult at the time she CHOSE to groom and traffic these girls. She was working in the highest echelons of society. I have no doubt she knew that would place her in a very problematic position if caught. Their privileged lifestyle didn’t allow for them to seriously contemplate getting caught. If they did get caught, they believed it wouldn’t go anywhere. Which is exactly what happened for years and years. I don’t feel sorry for Maxwell. She knew what she was doing. Frankly, I have no idea if her life span just got greatly shortened, but if I were her, I would start naming names and giving LOTS of details. If she commits suicide (riiiiiiiiiight), then she’ll take more down with her.
Yesss, GrabbyHands. I cannot with ANY mention of gender in this case (in terms of her being the only person so far being held accountable). This isn’t the time for a misguided feminist argument. In fact, it’s the opposite of feminism to even mention stuff like that. Maxwell is a predator and a criminal and a horrible person, full stop. The only appropriate way to talk about this angle is something like “every predator involved should be held accountable, and now one has been.”
What a relief! I was afraid she was going to get off scot-free.
I was so worried she would get away with this. I hope Trump and Andrew are sweating right now. She should get additional charges for that hair.
Well, if randy Andy and trumpster fire are sweating, then Clinton and Kennedy are probably too. Those lists are loooong. And nobody is safe at the top. That’s why Ghis won’t say a word. It’s pointless
Lol, nope, not pointless. And nobody I know who wants to see justice done has political favorites they want to protect in this debacle–name them all.
She is NOT ‘getting the reckoning Epstein never had’! She IS getting the reckoning she deserves for what she did! And all the other men and women involved in this should get a reckoning too. She can play the victim all she wants, but her childhood was over long ago, and is never a pass for abusing others. I hope she continues to hate her stay in prison. And I hope the victims continue to get justice.
Exactly
Wow, this verdict is such a relief! And yes, I’m sure the toilets are flushing nonstop at BP, KP, CH, etc. I am looking forward to Prince Andrew’s perp walk!
Help me out here fellow CB’ers.
Let me start off with: ABOUT DAMNED TIME these women get a measure of justice, even if it’s small.
For the very life of me, can someone explain WHY Maxwell, with her what???? 4/5 (maybe more) passports actually STAYED here in the U.S. knowing she was being hunted? I am by no means giving her grace and a pass, but she could have bailed to any country and made it extremely difficult to be extradited (especially with her money). She could have easily disappeared into the vapors for years. (This is the part of my brain that questions everything speaking now)
Did she feel bullet proof? Smug and arrogant enough to think she was safe from it all?
Are the floodgates finally going to open and other victims will come forward?
I agree with @Willow. Epstein escaped the justice he deserved. She is paying for HER part.
I think she felt bullet-proof. She needed to be in a place where she could get same-day delivery and also a place where she probably believed Donald Trump could get his buddies to cheer her on.
Stupid hubris. I read that the name she used was G Max.
The Maldives – no extradition treaty, 5-star hotels, sunny beaches. Instead, hiding in the New Hampshire woods – nice house, but no same day delivery there.
@Merlinsmom1018. I was thinking just that. I never understood why she was living in the U.S. She could have stayed in France where she has citizenship and most likely would not have been extradited. She must have been given assurances that she was safe from prosecution here. The prosecutors have tapes, photos, logs, the women stories, do they really need Ghislaine to name names? Don’t they already have the names?
She just turned 60 facing possibly 65 years in prison, what deal can she make? Testify against the men for what 25 years instead of 65, it’s still a life sentence. My guess is that she will appeal first and take it from there. If she does name names it’s not going to be those we expect. There are some men on the list who will become collateral damage to protect the more powerful ones.
Odds on her dying from “covid” to keep her from naming names….or will she use that threat to negotiate a better sentence?
I don’t practice criminal law, but I doubt the judge not setting a sentencing date has anything to do with deals for Ghislaine. That ship has sailed. Any deals would have been made before going to trial. She can perhaps bargain against charges that could be brought in the future. But since they’ve just won this case, my guess is that the prosecution wants to collect their pound of flesh at this point.
“Was found dead from an apparent suicide.” How hard is that to say media world? It’s always really bugged me that the the very first reports of Epstein’s death were “Epstein kills himself.” That’s not even how news reporting works. “Epstein found dead.” Then “apparent suicide.” Finally “confirmed suicide.” That’s how widespread the influence of Epstein’s clients was. Even the New York Times tossed out reporting protocols and called it a suicide before any sort of investigation has occurred.
Literally no one believes it was a suicide and Ghislane is probably pretty worried. Will she be in extra secure conditions? Will she even have the chance to name names and bargain for a lighter sentence?
She will keep her mouth shut. She saw what happened to Epstein and he would have squealed. I guess those powerful contacts don’t want to know anymore. She also saw what happened to her father who it’s long been said was murdered.
Plus her ‘husband’ has moved on with a much younger yoga instructor.
It’s not a matter of her keeping her mouth shut – it’s whether others believe she’ll keep her mouth shut.
I want to hear about the yoga instructor.
I cheered in my heart when I read the verdict!!! Finally, some justice for the victims. I agree the johns should be exposed and prosecuted as well but I don’t think Maxwell will reveal the black books. This is good though. One person involved in that horrific abuse ring serving a life sentence, I am in favor of.
it’s a nit, but I really wish the msm would stop describing Epstein as a financier. He wasn’t, that was a cover. He was a pimp.
I prefer how LaineyGossip puts it – “dead rapist pedophile”
yes! much better…
👏👏👏👏
Glad she was found guilty. Hope she gets the prison term she deserves. Her crimes were so despicable.
Now: Since she was brought to justice==> TAKE-A-💩 IS NEXT! It’s sooo great that all of the perpetrators and their scandals are being REVEALED plus TAKEN TO TASK! 👆👍🏽👏🏽
I respectfully disagree that Maxwell has cards to play in negotiating a reduced sentence. Sure she can name names, and those names include elite and powerful men.
But she is the big fish here and those elite and powerful men are mere customers, if you will. Are you going to reduce Pablo Escobar’s sentence because he can provide names of the guys doing lines in the nightclub bathroom? No.
But we are not talking about doing lines of coke, we’re talking about trafficking, rape and assault.
Yes, those rapists and child sex offenders should be brought to justice in their own separate cases. She may be in possession of videotaped evidence. But that is no justification for lowering Maxwell’s sentence.
From what I’ve read, Maxwell wants to appeal the decision. Naming names depends on the prosecutors. They’d only cut a deal if Maxwell has enough evidence to get a conviction against those named. Otherwise, it’s not worth their while.
Eurydice, I agree. I think the only way she’ll do this if she’s “suicidal”. Then she might name names with details.
This is what she deserves and the Feds need to go after some of the men involved. Side note but the BBC coverage of this verdict has been absolute garbage. They brought on Alan Dershowitz to discuss the case after the verdict, one of Epstein’s pal who has been accused of using these girls. A clear conflict of interest. Then they’re calling the victims underage women and trying to sympathize Maxwell. Absolute trash! Hope Andrew is sweating big time. Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald has the most comprehensive coverage of this case and is her reporting is one of reasons why SDNY brought new charges against Epstein and Maxwell. Hope she is given a very long sentence.
I don’t know that she will tell anything to help her reduce her sentencing…
There should be some nervousness amongst the men…
That picture with them and the T’s (I can’t even say their name) just repulses me.
I’m still quite salty about the fact that William’s helicoptering and affairs around the Rose bush are getting more coverage and notice than this story with direct links to Prince Andrew.😒 I said this in the helicopter comments but the fact that the BM was sitting on that info and it only NOW coming to light seems familiarly telling…..
Gone are the days when the RF could distract from and sidetrack their unpleasant behavior by tossing out tasty tidbits and tales about Meghan. They’re all sitting ducks now because they don’t have access to H and M anymore. Even the fact that this story only got half as much (maybe even a third) of the comments as those about Will’s extra marital affair and Will and Kate’s work habits are telling. These people are good at timely distractions.☹️
The rich and powerful think lower classes are trash and that anyone should be grateful for the attention, plane rides money and gifts. It’s their ‘right’. I hope this is finally the end for that attitude. They’re squirming because a light has been shone into their world. Ghislaine Maxwell May have been ‘close’ to them but she was the daughter of a Czech Jewish upstart who was useful because he owned most of the media. He was ridiculed in ‘Private Eye’ and rented a large mansion for an absurd rent from Oxford Council. A light has been shone in but it’ll take a lot more to clear the filth out. I salute those brave women