The truth prevailed
Despite fiend’s war chest
AFTER all these years and untold victims, finally: Justice. It wasn’t a sure thing that Ghislaine Maxwell would be found guilty, despite the overwhelming evidence against her and the graphic testimony of four traumatized survivors.
It took five days for the jury to reach a verdict — five agonizing, nail-biting days.
After jurors asked to see additional testimony on Wednesday morning — Day Five — Maxwell and her legal team were beaming.
Moments later, Maxwell even spoke to an ABC News producer in the courtroom, reportedly telling him she would be willing to sit for an interview — that’s how sure she was she’d walk.
Yes: Ms. Maxwell was ready for her close-up.
And why not? The longer the jury was out, the less likely it seemed they’d convict.
Consider that it took only 26 hours for a jury to find Harvey Weinstein guilty. And his was a complex case involving multiple victims who testified that they continued to have warm exchanges, dates, and sexual relations with Weinstein after he assaulted them.
If a smart, savvy New York jury — male-dominated at that — could parse through Harvey Weinstein’s bulls--t, be evolved enough to understand that there are no perfect victims, that the psychodynamic between abuser and abused is complicated and often counterintuitive — well, what was taking the Maxwell jury so long?
Even Adam Horowitz, a lawyer who once represented several Jeffrey Epstein victims, thought Maxwell’s defense attorneys were a post-#MeToo Dream Team.
“An acquittal wouldn’t surprise me,” he told Bloomberg last Thursday. “It’s a difficult case and [the prosecution] put on some really good witnesses, but the defense did a good job poking holes in some of them.”
That “good job” the defense did included calling the testifying victims liars, or confused (i.e., crazy), or in it for a payday.
It’s the textbook defense used by sexual predators, one we’ve all become far too familiar with: Blame the victims, smear their names and reputations in the national media, and cast yourself as the real victim here.
Care to recall Maxwell’s jailhouse interview on the eve of her trial, bemoaning the absence of nutritious food and a good night’s sleep?
This is a sociopath who didn’t blanch at the idea anyone could believe she’d do the things she was accused of, let alone consort with a known pedophile.
No, her concerns were more quotidian.
“I wash my own clothes,” she told the Daily Mail. “The dryer is so loud it’s nicknamed the ‘Space Shuttle’ because it sounds like it might take off.”
Tells you all you need to know.
The FBI found tens of thousands of photos of nude underage girls and women on a computer used by Epstein. Imagine how many survivors are out there — survivors who will never get their day in court, who will carry what was done to them the rest of their lives.
Sure, five days to deliberate was longer than expected.
But it turns out our collective understanding of what rape and sexual abuse are, and the sophisticated masks predators hide behind, is evolving at warp speed.