The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell came to an end on Wednesday, December 29. After about 40 hours of deliberations, the jury found her guilty on five of the six charges against her. She was convicted of sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three related counts of conspiracy, but not of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts. Maxwell reportedly faces up to 65 years in prison, but just how much of that maximum sentence she receives remains to be seen.
Ghislaine Maxwell was both a one-time girlfriend and an employee of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, and the charges covered the sexual exploitation of teen girls through the 1990s and early 2000s. Epstein, who was being held awaiting trial, was found dead in his jail cell back in 2019 of an apparent suicide – though whether it was suicide or homicide has been questioned ever since.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Maxwell’s defense sought to frame Epstein’s death as the true motive for these charges. The defense team claimed that the man’s death prior to sentencing robbed his victims of their chance at justice – so the prosecution struggled to appease them by shifting the blame onto Maxwell. Ultimately, that argument fell flat, largely thanks to the testimony of four women. Jane, Kate, and Carolyn used either their first names alone or made one up to protect their privacy, but the fourth – a psychologist named Annie Farmer – chose to use her full name after having been outspoken about her allegations.
The testimony of all four agreed on one point: Maxwell worked to gain their trust by being nice, giving them gifts, showing an interest in the challenges of their teen lives, and promising that Epstein could make their dreams come true thanks to his wealth and influence. By the time she coaxed them into giving him massages, however, things turned sexual. Kate, who had been 17 at the time of the offense, said that Maxwell called her a good girl after the fact. Carolyn testified that she had been lured into Epstein’s Florida home in the early 2000s with the promise of $100 bills to give him a massage. She had been 14 at the time. Jane, who was also 14 when Epstein got hold of her, said that he masturbated on her at his pool house in Palm Beach in 1994 and that she had been “frozen in fear.” Farmer, who testified last, explained how Maxwell had touched her breasts while giving her a massage at Epstein’s New Mexico property, and how he had gotten into bed with her and pressed himself against her.
All four women confirmed that Maxwell was both responsible for arranging and then often directly involved in the sexual abuse over the years. The defendant opted not to testify, preferring to stand behind the argument that Epstein was the abuser, not her. “The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for things that Jeffrey Epstein did,” Bobbi Sternheim, one of Maxwell’s attorneys, stated. “But she is not Jeffrey Epstein and she is not like Jeffrey Epstein.” The jury, however, disagreed.
What’s Next?
Outside the courthouse, after the verdict was read, Sternheim expressed the defense team’s disappointment and promised an appeal was already in the works, adding, “and we are confident that she will be vindicated.” Even without the appeal, Maxwell hasn’t seen her last courtroom. Barring a rapid “vindication,” as the attorney put it, she must face sentencing for these crimes, as well as another trial on two counts of perjury and numerous lawsuits over the abuse allegations.
But the story has never just been about Ghislaine Maxwell or even Jeffrey Epstein, and Maxwell’s charges leave some big questions unresolved. If she’s guilty of sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three related counts of conspiracy, then for whom did she commit these crimes? The defense team attempted to push it all off on Epstein, whose death made a convenient scapegoat for their own “scapegoat” argument, but his was not the only name mentioned.
Epstein and Maxwell rubbed elbows with a who’s who of the rich and famous over the years, from presidents and princes to movie stars and musicians. During the trial, Larry Visoski, the man who flew Epstein’s personal Boeing 727 – nicknamed the Lolita Express due to its frequent transport of what seemed to be underage women to Epstein’s island – for nearly 30 years, gave a list of high profile passengers. Over roughly 1,000 trips between 1991 and 2019, that list included presidents and senators, Britain’s Prince Andrew, tech billionaire Bill Gates, actors Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, and violinist Itzhak Perlman. The pilot testified that he never witnessed sexual abuse during a flight, and it’s entirely possible that no one on the passenger list ever had anything to do with Epstein’s crimes – but it certainly raises some questions: Was anyone else involved? If so, who, and will anyone else be charged?
