No one is more shocked about the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict than Ghislaine Maxwell. 

As the documentary producer who trailed Maxwell for five years and observed her at her trial in New York City, she seemed almost detached or indifferent to the gravity of the  proceedings unfolding in grim detail. 

She was charged with trafficking and enticement of minors, and there was no shortage of damaging accusations being levelled her way, but she clearly thought she would be cleared. 

I still don’t think she realises how horrible she is, or the enormity of her crimes.

At approximately 9am every morning during the trial, Ghislaine would emerge in the courtroom through a door next to the Judge’s bench as though she was arriving for a cocktail party. Girlishly bouncing forth into the waiting arms of her formidable dream team of Defense lawyers, hugging each of them vigorously, and chatting away animatedly as though she hadn’t a care in the world. It was remarkable to see this woman behave in the same effervescent manner as the world has now seen in hundreds of photographs with her famous pals. And yet, none of those pals bothered to show up to defend her as she was on trial for her life.

Her seeming arrogance was not a good look, but observing her in the courtroom, it struck me that the performance was just that - a cover for being dead inside. And wouldn’t she have to be? To endure her tyrant father, Robert Maxwell? To survive and prosper from the pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein? In order to sleep at night and flit undetected amongst high society, knowing that she was essentially grooming and pimping out underage girls and ruining their lives? 

What the world saw in Maxwell at trial was a classic defense mechanism of killing off the harsh realities of her complicity. If I don’t take it all in, be engaged, then it’s not really happening. It’s not really happening to me. 

But it really did happen for the victims.

The four adult survivors of Maxwell’s abuse who took the stand were all incredibly brave. But it was the testimony of Carolyn, the final victim to speak, that favourably moved the needle for the Prosecution. It would be impossible for anyone not to have been affected by Carolyn’s account of surviving Maxwell and Epstein, and it was evident that she is still struggling. As much as the Defense tried to hammer her to a pulp, there was no unseeing what we saw on the stand that day. This woman was absolutely wrecked by what life had dealt her and Maxwell played a hand in her dismal journey. It was Maxwell who deemed teenager Carolyn’s body “great for Mr. Epstein and his friends.”

To look at her sitting just a few feet from the witness, Ghislaine appeared untouched by it all. Like her father’s denial of his crimes, like her brother’s “look over there” spin about human rights abuses against his innocent sister outside the courtroom, the Maxwells mold reality to fit their needs. It is the Maxwell way.

In fact, on what turned out to be the final and sixth day of deliberation, those in the courtroom were convinced the case might, indeed, go Maxwell’s way. None more so than Ghislaine and her multi-million-dollar legal team who were positively buoyant, the longer the deliberations rolled along They believed they had this case in hand. 

Even an hour before the announcement of the verdict on Wednesday, an American television producer for ABC News approached a Maxwell family lawyer, Leah Saffian, with a whisper. She quickly escorted him over to Ghislaine herself, where they proceeded to have a fifteen second conversation. As a documentary producer there is only one question to ask: “Would you do an interview with me after the trial?” Judging by the smiles exchanged, Maxwell appeared agreeable to cooperate from the comfort of an imminent acquittal.

The upbeat energy at the defense table was in stark contrast to that of the prosecutors, who, poker faced, seemed prepared to lose.

This is why the guilty verdict is so satisfying. We have watched people like the Maxwells, and Jeffrey Epstein, and a coterie of disgraceful international power players and heads of state essentially “Get Away With It” for years. So, when Ghislaine Maxwell, after skirting the law and leaving havoc in her wake finally gets her comeuppance, the shock waves are real for all.

Yet, when the guilty verdict was announced, Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly pulled down her face mask and poured herself a glass of water. 

Shocked? Dead inside? Both?

Based on the spin her brother Ian is currently perpetuating to the media, Ghislaine will name names to shave off prison time. The fact that Ian would emerge to announce such assurances reveals there is a PR game in play to keep Ghislaine safe since there are some very nervous men right now.

They should be nervous because Ghislaine is desperate, and history has revealed what a desperate Maxwell is capable of.  Survival, at all costs, is in their DNA and Ghislaine has run out of options.

Except for one. Reportedly, the kompromat – the compromising information that both she and Epstein worked so diligently to acquire for decades that was meant for times like these.

We know that neither Epstein, nor Maxwell did much. He barely had an education let alone a job. So, the question of how they earned hundreds of millions in dollars lingers and Ghislaine has the answer. Her work involved infiltrating elite circles which she did with ease. Due to her upbringing, those rooms were familiar, and she gladly allowed Epstein to exploit those contacts for nefarious motives.  

The kompromat is likely comprised of information beyond documenting men with underage girls. The information may also point to where these men hid their billions in legal and illicit funds along with other horrible deeds these men may have committed that Epstein documented.

A flip through their fat Black Book reveals how deeply connected these two were to geopolitical powers, bankers and billionaires. This is no mistake or coincidence. This resembles an organized operation. That is why some of Epstein’s lawyers, family and allegedly Ghislaine, herself, believe Epstein did not die by his own hand.

As Maria Farmer, one of the Epstein/Maxwell survivors said to us in an interview “these people get away with everything, there’s only one way they don’t get away with everything, and it’s if they’re killed.  So either she gets away with everything or she gets killed.” 

Maxwell could play the trump card in a grab for freedom, before hiding away from those who wish her dead. Her father and Epstein didn’t succeed in dodging a similar option, but I would never count a cold hard survivor like Ghislaine out. Because she’s already dead inside.

And yet, once upon a time, she was a young woman of privilege from a wealthy British family who ran a media empire. She could have followed a starkly different path than the one that led her to be convicted on a cold day in New York City, just days away from her 60th birthday.

How did Ghislaine Maxwell fall so far? What led her to this life of crime? How could she get away with the crimes for so long, out in the open? What follows is that epic story, of how a socialite who once strutted around with Prince Andrew—a man who is now about to go to trial because of her -became the Bonnie to Epstein’s Clyde.

Next Chapter: Daddy’s Girl