Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty

Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty

The British businesswoman, Ghislaine Maxwell, who held a long-term relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, was recently found guilty in five of six charges against her. On July 2, 2020, she was arrested and charged with sex trafficking and other related crimes under her relationship with sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Her trial began about 5 months after her arrest, and she was found guilty of the charges on December 29, 2022. 

Ghislaine Maxwell held a very close, and very long-term relationship with millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. Some accounts say they met in the late 80s and some will say they met in the early 90s, but the exact timing is unknown. The two held a romantic relationship for some time in the 90s, and continued to hold a business-related relationship for about 25 years until his death in 2019. Maxwell would follow Epstein everywhere and do everything with him, as she was known to his staff as the “lady of the house” and his “aggressive assistant”. 

In 2019, Epstein was arrested and charged with procuring an underage girl for prostitution, sex trafficking, etc. Most of the work he did was majorly influenced by, and could not have been completed without the help from his “business partner,” Ghislaine Maxwell. After a long time of Maxwell not having to take any repercussions from the mess that Epstein created, she finally had her trial and is facing jail time. Her trial for everybody was a challenge, as they needed to “disentangle her from the allegations against Mr. Epstein” according to The New York Times. Basically they needed to keep the trial focused on Maxwell, and everything she was involved in, and not on the late Epstein. “Maxwell enticed minor girls, got them to trust her and then delivered them into the trap that she and Jeffrey Epstein had set,” says acting Manhattan U.S. attorney Audrey Strauss, to which Maxwell told the Judge “I have not committed any crime”. 

Maxwell’s defense was that she tried to normalize sexual assault and inappropriate behavior, and that she “helped put the victims at ease because an adult woman was present.” Though she tried to defend herself, it was not easy to get out of the crimes that she very clearly committed. The jury and the judge were not easily swayed by her defense team, as she is now facing 65 years in prison. Her defense team already plans to appeal the sentence as they still believe she is innocent. The judge is likely to not appeal the sentence or lessen it in any way, since the charges include involvement with minors. The reaction to the trial and her sentence seems to be overall very positive and people are happy to see that justice is finally being served and the victims of Epstein and Maxwell can finally feel safe and get closure.