Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother has praised Donald Trump for his support when she was arrested—just as the president’s DOJ opens the door to striking a deal to free her.
Ian Maxwell used an interview Tuesday with YouTuber Piers Morgan to gush over Trump, who had raised eyebrows when he said he wished Ghislaine “well” on the day she was seized by the FBI for sex trafficking after a year in hiding.
Maxwell, who said his sister “didn’t have a fair trial,” said they both greatly appreciated Trump’s comments after she was taken into custody in July 2020. Trump had said at a White House press conference then: “I just wish her well, frankly.”
“I don’t think that anyone else showed the slightest bit of humanity—not anybody at that time. And yet he did,” Maxwell said on Piers Morgan Uncensored.
“He didn’t need to,” he went on. “He’s president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world. He could have just sloughed it off. He didn’t. He made a positive statement. I’m very grateful for that, and I know Ghislaine was too.”
Trump, who has done a fair amount of key-jingling to his base to try to get them to move on from the Jeffrey Epstein issue, has told the Justice Department to reach out to Ghislaine Maxwell, though it remains to be seen whether she would participate in any interview.
House Republicans are also moving to issue a subpoena to the 63-year-old, who is serving a 20-year sentence in Tallahassee, Florida’s Federal Correctional Institution.
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of sex trafficking and conspiracy to entice underage girls to travel for illegal sex acts.
Ian Maxwell could not bring himself to explicitly say that Epstein was a pedophile.
When asked if he believed Epstein was a “predatory pedophile,” Maxwell balked at the question.
“Do I believe it?” he said, after a few false starts in his reply. “I believe that he had some really strange predilections for young girls.”
“Well, it’s called pedophilia,” Morgan shot back. “Let’s call it what it is.”
“OK. You want to call it pedophilia,” Maxwell said.
“That’s fine. That’s fine,” he replied quickly. “I have no issue that that was his modus operandi for his own pleasure. But I don’t believe it goes beyond his own predilections.”
Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18 in 2008.
In July 2019, Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. He was found dead in his cell the following month.
The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment.
