Inside the Courtroom: Ghislaine Maxwell
December 21, 2021
LIVE EVENT
crimeHQ was treated to a visit from John Sweeney, investigative reporter and host of podcast "Hunting Ghislaine."
Sweeney has been in the courtroom throughout Gishlaine Maxwell's trial, and stopped by to share his insights. Our host Kelly McLear asked Sweeney what he thought of today's proceedings. He had to admit that he missed some of this morning's trial due to needing to queue up to book a COVID test in preparation for flying back to the U.K. for the holidays.
He did finally arrive around 11am, however, and so was able to provide some thoughts. He said that while the prosecution is setting out the evidence that Maxwell is guilty of being a predator, her defense is fighting back. According to Sweeney, they "ripped up the prosecution" by saying it had not done enough to prove Maxwell's guilt. And he allowed that "there is no direct evidence…which shows Ghislaine with one of the four accusers." By direct evidence, he meant photos or videos.
The strongest evidence against Maxwell are the four witnesses who say she groomed them, but Sweeney said it's all circumstantial evidence. The defense also posits that the accusers are after a financial payout. They say that it makes them look suspicious that back when they filed against Epstein, they never mentioned her.
Maureen Comey, one of the lead prosecutors in the case, says that these four women claim they were groomed by Maxwell to "sate the perversion" of Jeffrey Epstein. And although there aren't pictures of her with any of the four accusers, Sweeney believes that the photos of Epstein and Maxwell together for 15 years prove that she was in his world and under his influence during the time that the women claim the events happened.
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