Ghislaine Maxwell faces the prospect of dying behind bars following her conviction on sex trafficking charges — unless the feds are convinced she can be trusted to spill the beans on all the crimes she saw while in Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit, experts told the Daily News Thursday.
The 60-year-old British socialite was found guilty in Manhattan Federal Court of five counts carrying a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison for grooming underage victims of Jeffrey Epstein for a decade.
Experts said her only shot at reducing her prison term — aside from a successful appeal — would be fully cooperating with federal prosecutors by coming clean about all the crimes she committed, as well any committed by other other powerful players in Epstein’s orbit. And that’s only if prosecutors decide to believe her.
Former Manhattan federal prosecutor Elie Honig said the earlier a defendant cooperates with prosecutors, the better the outcome for both sides. If Maxwell were to cooperate at this late stage in her case, delays to her sentencing would signal to Epstein accomplices that she’s flipped — all but eliminating the element of surprise.
“That said, it does happen sometimes,” Honig said. “It’s not impossible for somebody to cooperate after trial. It would have to be an exceptional circumstance. You’d have to be looking at somebody who has uniquely valuable information that you could not get from any other source and that would really lead you to something significant.”
The trial featured evidence that powerful people — like U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump — flew on the private planes Epstein and Maxwell used to traffic underage girls. Maxwell is alleged to have also plied her friend, Prince Andrew, with an Epstein victim, Virginia Giuffre. The British royal has denied wrongdoing and is locked in a civil lawsuit with Giuffre.
Other experts said that while Maxwell might once have had a shot at dodging a lengthy sentence, she squandered it by declining to come clean early about Epstein and his enablers.
“I would bet against her cooperating,” said veteran defense lawyer Paul Shechtman. “She has apparently shown no inclination to cooperate up to now, when she certainly had the opportunity.”
“A person who sits through a trial and protests her innocence does not make the most persuasive cooperator. And she is alleged to have been the number two person in the enterprise — meaning that she would be testifying about people less culpable,” added Shechtman.
“But this is the Jeffrey Epstein case, so anything could happen.”
Another roadblock Maxwell faces is prosecutors’ reluctance to allow someone to “cooperate down.” Maxwell has been the top living participant in the Epstein scheme since the financier’s suicide in August 2019. Prosecutors described Maxwell at the trial as so crucial to Epstein’s scheme that he could not have done it without her.
“There really is no higher to go at this point given that Jeffrey Epstein is dead,” said Moira Penza, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor who brought down NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere.
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