(KRON) — Convicted sex trafficker, one-time British socialite and former girlfriend of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a low-security prison. Maxwell, 61, is now appealing her high-profile case.
Ian Maxwell, Ghislaine’s brother, spoke to KRON4’s Vicki Liviakis from London about where things stand in the appeal process. Ghislaine Maxwell was at the center of an international sex scandal involving Epstein.
“She wishes she had never met Jeff Epstein, and because the havoc that relationship has caused, not just Ghislaine, but really everybody that came in touch with him,” said Ian Maxwell.
Maxwell is serving 20 at a Tallahassee federal prison for her role in sex trafficking underage victims. In her recently filed appeal, she says she did not receive a fair trial.
“Basically, it was a stitch up from after Jeffrey Epstein died in US government custody when Bill Barr was Attorney General,” said Ian Maxwell.
The billionaire financier was found hung in his jail cell in an apparent suicide. Ian Maxwell, however, questions the official account.
“The only person to actually take the fall is Jeff Epstein, and he’s dead of course,” said Ian Maxwell. “We don’t really know, the extent of what happened that night. There, his own family thinks he was murdered. My sister thinks he was murdered.”
According to her brother, Ghislaine Maxwell believes she was blamed for Epstein’s crimes to satisfy public outrage. Ian Maxwell said that his sister has acknowledged the victims’ suffering and has expressed considerable empathy for them.
Maxwell’s appeal claims, among other things, that a juror failed to disclose he was a victim of child abuse prior to being on the jury for her case. Despite reports of a black book and secret video tapes, Ian Maxwell said if it were true, they would have been released by now.
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He still fears for his sister’s safety.
“If there are other people that have not yet come into the prosecution’s orbit, and who may be powerful people and don’t wish to be involved in this, somehow that they would find it. An ability to murder my sister or cause her to have an accident that looks like an accident but isn’t,” said Ian Maxwell.
It may take more than six months for Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal to be heard. In the meantime, Ian Maxwell said his family is standing by his sister.
“We are her family. We love her, we miss her, and we will support and defend her,” said Ian Maxwell.
