Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother calls her a ‘survivor’ and suggests she’s a victim of abuse by the media

Brother writes that authorities ‘targeted’ British socialite ‘fuelled by their shame and fury at losing Epstein in federal custody’

Ian Maxwell, the brother of Ghislaine Maxwell, has written a column in which he says his sister is a “survivor” as he blasts the media for what he claims is unfair coverage of the British socialite.

Writing in the conservative UK magazine The Spectator, Mr Maxwell stated that all the Maxwell kids “inherited” the “survivor gene” of their father, British newspaper baron Robert Maxwell.

Mr Maxwell wrote that their father was “a man of profound inner sorrow” after “having lost his parents and most of his family in Auschwitz”.

He added that his father survived by developing a thick outer shell “combined with relentless self-promotion” but added that “underneath he was forever grieving”.

Ms Maxwell has been charged with two counts of transporting individuals across state lines for illegal sexual activity, one charge of sex trafficking of a minor and one charge of sex trafficking conspiracy. She also faces two charges of perjury that will be tried at a later date. She has denied all wrongdoing.

Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex crimes charges.

Mr Maxwell then went on to describe the “vile conditions in the Metropolitan Detention Centre” where his sister is being held during her trial.

“The rats, the poor sanitation, being woken every 15 minutes with a torch shone in her eyes. But as awful as it is, it’s not Auschwitz. Ghislaine knows that,” he wrote.

Follow live updates on the Ghislaine Maxwell trial

He said his sister has endured “500 days of effective solitary isolation in that evil place”, adding that “she’s weakened, drained and hollowed out”. Mr Maxwell said his siblings who have been to her trial don’t “recognise the pin-sharp, smart sister we all once knew”.

The brother claimed that Ms Maxwell is going through “abominable abuse of her human rights” because of the “estimated 3,500 pat-downs and intrusive strip searches” and “the obstacles she still faces in reviewing legal papers” as well as “the multiple irrational denials of bail”.

Mr Maxwell then announced that the family has made a complaint with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

He said their parents “hardly” gave Ms Maxwell “a glance” as a young child because of their “profound” grief after her older brother Michael ended up in a coma just two days after her birth following a car crash. After seven years in a coma, he died in 1968, Mr Maxwell wrote.

The brother claimed that the authorities “targeted” Ms Maxwell “fuelled by their shame and fury at losing Epstein in federal custody”. He said that a “dramatic arrest” was “staged”, which he claimed, “effectively pronounced her guilty to millions of Americans before any evidence was called”.

He added that “Ghislaine has been loudly maligned” during the trial. “These detractors include those who have not been called as witnesses and whose claims have not been tested in court under oath.”

Mr Maxwell added some in the media “have suggested that the prosecution has fumbled its case” in order to “perpetuate the trope of Ghislaine’s guilt in the court of public opinion”.

“This narrative does not admit the possibility that the government has simply not had the evidence,” he added.