[imagesource: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images]
On July 2, 2020, Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested on multiple charges related to the sexual abuse of young women and girls by Jeffrey Epstein.
She tried to flee from FBI officials during the raid at the New Hampshire mansion where she had been hiding, and agents found a cellphone wrapped in tin foil on top of a desk, in a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection.
Definitely the actions of an innocent woman who is confident she has done nothing wrong.
Since her incarceration, Maxwell’s legal team, along with her family, have done everything in their power to secure her release on bail, but have thus far been unsuccessful.
Now her brother, Ian Maxwell, has come out swinging, telling The Telegraph that her treatment is “brutal and degrading”, and calling the US legal system “bizarre and cruel”:
In an impassioned defence of his sister, Mr Maxwell [below], 64, said: “On evidence that can be shown to be false given just a little exploration and digging, Ghislaine has been accused of being a procurer and a heartless woman and far more besides. In fact, she is none of these things.”
…Mr Maxwell described his sister’s treatment as a “disgrace to any civilised democracy”.
He said her decision to renounce her French and British citizenships, in an attempt to persuade US authorities she is not a flight risk, had caused her “immense distress”.
There are many, many women who argue that your sister is “a procurer and a heartless woman”, Ian.
I wonder if he’s watched Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich?
The Maxwell family has launched a campaign called ‘Operation Get Ghislaine Out’, which gets zero points for creativity but does have a great deal of money behind it.
Consider that her husband pledged a cool $25 million as security, which would be forfeited if Ghislaine went on the run, with her brothers posting a further $5 million in bail guarantees.
[Ian] said Ms Maxwell was being kept in a cell that measured just 6 feet by 9 feet that “includes a concrete bed and a toilet”.
He added: “She has ten cameras trained on her, including one mobile camera, 24/7. Four guards observe her all the time and presumably another is looking at the camera feeds.
“She is not allowed in the corners of her cell; she is not allowed within 2.5 feet of the cell door. These conditions, which Ghislaine has now endured for close on 250 days, are depriving her of her health and critically the ability meaningfully to prepare her defence. This is simply wrong.”
Ian added that his sister’s hair is falling out, and she is having trouble concentrating, which makes poring over the two million pages of evidence presented by the prosecution difficult.
Never a good sign when you’re up against two million pages.
To further bolster sympathy for his sister, Ian said that Ghislaine’s “greatest passion is the environment”:
He said she had been instrumental in “persuading the United Nations to appoint an official to monitor the oceans”, adding: “Ghislaine was captivated by the oceans when, as a very young child, she saw the films of Jacques Cousteau and has gone on to become a diver and submersible diver with a huge knowledge of the oceans, and particularly the threats to them from pollution generally and plastics principally.”
Again, I’m not sure the lengthy list of women who have accused Maxwell of aiding and abetting Epstein’s crimes are going to care about her plastic activism.
Maxwell is due to go on trial later this year, and will face child sex trafficking charges, among others.
[source:telegraph]
[imagesource: Alison Botha] Gqeberha rape survivor Alison Botha, a beacon of resilience...
[imagesource:mcqp/facebook] Clutch your pearls for South Africa’s favourite LGBTQIA+ ce...
[imagesource:capetown.gov] The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee has approved the...
[imagesource:drugwatch] Jassis, Yaz. This is a full-blown mess. In what appears to b...
[imagesource:mikebolhuis/facebook] The search for the 66-year-old Cape Town hiker has c...