Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted. Who is next?

There were grand jury investigations into others...

Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted. Finally.

The victims see justice for abuse that went on, if we are to believe the government, from 1994 to 2004. Crimes against minors that the DOJ had knowledge of way back in 2007, if not earlier. Years of inaction dating back to the George W. Bush administration. That is, until the DOJ decided it was getting bad press about the Epstein non-prosecution agreement and needed to change the conversation.

To put all this into perspective, Maxwell is now 60 years-old. She will finally serve time – perhaps for the rest of her life – for the crimes she started to commit at the age of 33.

The Charges and the DOJ Failure to Prosecute

Prosecutors charged Maxwell with six counts and secured a guilty verdict on five of them:

• Count 1: Conspiracy to Entice Minors to Travel to Engage in Illegal Sex Acts. Guilty.

• Count 3: Conspiracy to Transport Minors with Intent to Engage in Criminal Sexual Activity. Guilty.

• Count 4: Transportation of a Minor (Victim “Jane” only) with Intent to Engage in Criminal Sexual Activity. Guilty.

• Count 5: Sex Trafficking Conspiracy. Guilty.

• Count 6: Sex Trafficking of a Minor (Victim “Carolyn” only). Guilty.

She was found not guilty of Count 2 in the indictment of Enticement of a Minor (Victim “Jane” only) to Travel to Engage in Illegal Sex Acts.

The DOJ pats itself on the back for finally securing a conviction. The Southern District of New York (SDNY) gave credit to its prosecutors and promised it “will always stand with victims, will always follow the facts wherever they lead, and will always fight to ensure that no one, no matter how powerful and well connected, is above the law.”

Dare I say don’t believe them.

Recall that Epstein was given a sweetheart deal back in 2007. Notes from a meeting in 2016 - read the document here - reveal that a “US Attorney has said [Epstein] could be prosecuted elsewhere.” They refused to act for years.

One minor described that she was “taken to NY for training by Maxwell + Epstein - how to service men.”

And here are internal DOJ prosecutor e-mails identifying a “recruiter of girls” for Epstein. Again, dating back to 2016.

In any event, three of those charges for which Maxwell was convicted had to do with aiding and abetting Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minor victims. With that in mind, why did the SDNY refuse to charge Maxwell – Epstein’s co-conspirator – until nearly one year after Epstein died?

If the DOJ wanted her cooperation, or if they wanted to squeeze her for information, certainly they would have pursued her while Epstein was still alive.

In the alternative, some speculate that Maxwell, facing years in prison, will start “naming names” to get her sentence reduced. I’m not sure about that. Who can Maxwell accuse that the DOJ doesn’t already know about?

A related inquiry would be whether the DOJ is actively pursuing those who also took part in the conspiracy to victimize minors with Epstein. Look no further than Sarah Kellen.

After all, victim “Carolyn” accused Jeffrey Epstein and Sarah Kellen of abusing her in a prior suit. And when Carolyn took the stand, she described how Sarah Kellen would call her to arrange for the abusive Epstein massages. The government’s witness accused Kellen of being part of the conspiracy at trial.

Inner City Press @innercitypress

AUSA Moe: Here by the master bedroom is a drawing of a young girl pulling down her underwear. Maxwell understood what was happening in that case. This was the beginning of years of sexual abuse. Sometimes Sarah Kellen would call Carolyn.

That’s the same Sarah Kellen who was named in Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement, which stated the U.S. Government would:

“not institute criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, or Nadia Marcinkova.”

The plea deal also covered unknown co-conspirators. Court documents revealed there are names of Epstein’s co-conspirators who have not yet been identified. (The government’s position during the Maxwell trial was that it covered conduct in south Florida, not elsewhere.)

And as we have reported, in August 2020 – the month after Maxwell was charged, and one year after Epstein died – there was an active and ongoing grand jury investigation into “other possible co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein.”

The good thing about the Maxwell conviction was that justice was done. The bad thing - that which has been a pattern of governmental misconduct - is the very real possibility that the DOJ will use this conviction to close the book on the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein and his associates.

It seems the government wants this to go away because they’re somehow implicated.