Here’s the thing about the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict
Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell was just convicted on five felony counts, meaning she’ll spend most or all of the rest of her life in federal prison. One can only hope that this verdict will bring some degree of justice, closure, or peace to the victims. On a separate note, the manner in which this verdict came down is the latest reminder of why federal prosecutions have to work the way they do, particularly when the defendant has the benefit of expensive lawyers.
Jeffrey Epstein has been dead for nearly two and a half years. So why did it take this long to bring Ghislaine Maxwell to justice? The Feds indicted Maxwell on six different kinds of felony charges, all related to the sexual abuse of underage girls. The jury ended up convicting Maxwell on five of those charges, while acquitting Maxwell on the sixth charge. If the Feds had rushed the case, and only indicted Maxwell on the one charge that she ended up being acquitted on, Maxwell would be a free woman right now.
In these kinds of situations there’s a reason the Feds have to take the time to build such a comprehensive and broad criminal case against someone. It’s to make sure that no matter what kind of jury ends up getting picked for the trial, that jury will still end up convicting on at least some of the charges. We also saw this when the Feds indicted Trump associate Paul Manafort on eighteen felony counts; the jury convicted him on eight of them while deadlocking on the other ten.
So if you’re asking yourself why it’s taking so darn long for the Feds to build their criminal cases against people like Rudy Giuliani or Matt Gaetz, or why the Manhattan District Attorney’s office is taking so long to complete its criminal case against Donald Trump over his finances, this is your answer. You can’t just quickly indict a powerful person on the most obvious charge and then hope the jury sees it your way on that one charge. You have to take the time to build a case that runs the gamut, so you still get a conviction and a sizable prison sentence even if the jury doesn’t 100% see things your way – which is precisely what happened with Ghislaine Maxwell.
