Editorial written by South Florida Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.
Ghislaine Maxwell is no one’s victim. But that’s the disturbing narrative being peddled in advance of a possible fast track to a presidential pardon.
Convicted of sex trafficking, Maxwell was not a bystander in Jeffrey Epstein’s global web of child sex abuse. The British socialite was its architect. She used money and power to lure girls.
She coerced, cajoled, threatened, and with Epstein, molested them too.
Former Miami Herald journalist Julie Brown pointed out that as a wealthy man, Epstein could have employed high-priced prostitutes. But what he wanted was a supply of underage girls, and Maxwell made sure he got them.
“I have never met a more predatory, terrifying human being in my entire life,” said Maria Farmer, one of Epstein’s first accusers. “The woman is not a victim. She is a victimizer.”
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in 2022 in a federal prison in Tallahassee, three years after Epstein died in a New York City jail cell awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Now, she’s Donald Trump’s best bet to offset a self-inflicted political wound: Attorney General Pam Bondi slammed the door shut on producing the remaining unreleased documents in the Department of Justice’s investigation of Epstein. Those documents are at the center of talk about a conspiracy to protect powerful, wealthy men, including Trump and Bill Clinton.
Get over it, Trump told his own angry MAGA followers. They haven’t.
Is the fix already in?
All Maxwell has to do now is proclaim Trump had nothing to do with sex trafficking. Trump dangled the bait, twice telling reporters that he had the power to pardon her.
But Maxwell, who also faces two perjury charges, is not a sympathetic figure. So there’s political value to painting her as a victim, floated by Greg Kelly of “Greg Kelly Reports” on the relentlessly pro-Trump Newsmax TV.
“She just might be a victim,” Kelly said, sadly shaking his head. “She just might be.”
And just like that, the real or imagined discomforts of a woman who prosecutors labeled as a prolific liar is somehow on par with the girls she abused, girls who saw faces and knew names, and whom DOJ is not re-interviewing.
Endless contortions
Epstein and Trump were friends. As neighbors in Palm Beach, they partied together.
If the FBI and DOJ did a thorough job, Trump’s name would naturally be in those investigative files. It’s also possible that mentions of Trump would be politically embarrassing, but not evidence of a crime.
That was the case with the lewd “shared secrets” birthday card message Trump gave Epstein. And it’s not as though Trump hasn’t weathered sex scandals and scorching jury verdicts before.
