EXCLUSIVE Will Trump's former high-society friend Ghislaine Maxwell be the next infamous inmate to be pardoned?

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

She was famously photographed with Donald Trump at exclusive parties in Manhattan and Mar-a-Lago in her heyday, but can Ghislaine Maxwell 's one-time friend-turned-president now serve as her key to freedom?
With TV reality couple Todd and Julie Chrisley's surprise early release this week, speculation is now swirling over whether Trump could pardon another infamous inmate from his high-society orbit next, DailyMail.com can reveal.
Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in federal prison for being notorious sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein 's enabler.
DailyMail.com can disclose one ultra-close source to the Maxwell family has not dismissed the hope of a Trump intervention out of hand – following his sensational pardoning of the Chrisleys, who were convicted of federal bank fraud and tax evasion charges in 2022.
Maxwell's freedom-campaigning brothers Ian and Kevin Maxwell haven't formally petitioned the president for the ultimate clemency, but her family isn't ruling out the possibility, a close source told DailyMail.com exclusively.
'It's not a bad idea to ask President Trump for a pardon. He knew her. He's probably got views about whether she's innocent or guilty,' a member of the Maxwell family's inner circle said.
The 'who's next' speculation is running hot following the release of husband-and-wife TV duo Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were jailed for a $30million bank fraud and tax evasion in 2022.
They were sprung from prison this week after MAGA-supporter daughter Savannah's passionate Fox TV interview with the president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump.
President Trump told 27-year-old Savannah her parents 'don't look like terrorists' and privately conveyed he thought they'd been treated unfairly.
In the case of Maxwell – inmate number 02879-509 at the federal women's prison in Tallahassee, Florida – the issue is wrought with more complexity.
The British socialite former pal of Prince Andrew lost her appeal in 2024 against five counts related to sex trafficking for helping multi-millionaire financier Epstein abuse underage girls around the world.
But in April this year her legal team filed a petition to the US Supreme Court, claiming she was covered by a 2007 non-prosecution agreement for any Epstein co-conspirator.
Maxwell, 63, was sentenced in June 2022 after a lengthy New York trial. She was immediately sent to her Florida prison, where DailyMail.com has exclusively photographed her pounding around the facility's running track.
Brothers Ian, 69, and Kevin, 66, supported her in court and have campaigned tirelessly for her release since her 2021 conviction, proclaiming her innocence and alleging she did not receive a fair hearing.
Yet overshadowing every twist and turn in Maxwell's bid for freedom is one word: Epstein.
The notorious pedophile who killed himself in a New York jail in 2019 rather than face court for his sickening crimes.
And adding to the complexity is the historic Trump connection – to both of them.
The disgraced British socialite was previously revealed to have been moved to the facility's 'honor dorm', reserved for the best behaved inmates. Pictured above is one of the single level housing units in the female prison at FCI
The Commander in Chief innocently rubbed shoulders with Epstein on the social circuit in Palm Beach and Manhattan in the 1990s and early 2000s.
He was photographed with him and one video from 1992 shows them sharing a joke as women danced at the President's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach.
President Trump told New York magazine in 2002: 'I've known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy.
He's a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.'
However after Epstein's dramatic arrest at Teterboro Airport, New Jersey following a trip to Paris, Trump said at the White House: 'People in Palm Beach knew him, he was a fixture in Palm Beach.
'I had a falling out with him a long time ago. I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years. I wasn't a fan.'
He emphasized he had no idea of Epstein's crimes before his arrest.
President Trump and Maxwell were also photographed together as they socialized at events. First Lady Melania appears in at least three shots with them before her 2005 marriage.
The most bizarre was taken at supermodel Heidi Klum's 'hookers and pimps' themed Halloween party in October 2000.
It shows President Trump with his arms around a smiling Melania and Maxwell, who is dressed in a bleach blonde wig, leopard print jacket and gold leather pants. Prince Andrew was also at the event.
Earlier that year, blue-suited Trump, Melania, casually-dressed Epstein and Maxwell – sporting a bare midriff and back in a blue top with gold tassels – posed for the camera at a Mar-a-Lago event.
And in September 2000, Melania, Trump and Maxwell were snapped together at Anand Jon's fashion show in New York City.
Two years later the current President and First Lady were photographed with Maxwell and British supermodel Naomi Campbell at the opening of the Dolce & Gabbana fashion house.
Maxwell vanished after Epstein was arrested but was eventually arrested in a dramatic FBI raid on her secluded hideaway in a deeply rural part of New Hampshire.
Following the swoop, President Trump said of her: 'I met her numerous times over the years, especially since I live in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.'
Maxwell was a fixture at Epstein's notorious private island of Little St. James in the US Virgin Islands, where he helicoptered in under-age girls to sexually abuse in a years-long reign of vile crimes.
The Chrisley Knows Best stars were found guilty of defrauding banks out of $30million in 2022; seen in 2017
Wearing a hot pink MAGA hat, Savannah told TMZ that she is 'so grateful that I'm going to leave here with my dad' after an 'insane' two years of her trying to get him and Julie freed
She was also a regular on his private Boeing 727 jet, dubbed the Lolita Express, which carried Andrew and former President Bill Clinton among a host of other names, according to flight logs.
Crucially she acted as a 'madame' for Epstein, recruiting vulnerable young girls from the West Palm Beach area to give Epstein 'massages' at his $20million mansion in ritzy Palm Beach. There, he would abuse them.
One was tragic Virginia Giuffre, who was working as a locker room attendant at Mar-a-Lago when she said Maxwell approached her in the mid 2000s.
She said it led to years of harrowing abuse where she claimed she was 'passed around like a platter of fruit' to Epstein's powerful associates.
Giuffre, known as Roberts at the time, alleged one was Prince Andrew – famously photographed with his arm around her in Maxwell's London home with the socialite in the background.
The royal has consistently denied her accusations, although did pay her a reported payout of up to $16million in 2022.
Despite attempts to build a new life in Australia, mother-of-three Giuffre's marriage collapsed and the 41-year-old killed herself at her home on May 1 this year.
Maxwell's time behind bars has had moments of trauma, despite the prison being designated a low security facility for women.
She's been branded the ultimate 'prison Karen' for filing more than 400 complaints, including lackluster vegan menu options and 'unfair treatment'.
The disgraced socialite also demanded authorities give her immediate access to black hair dye. And she also even bagged plush hypoallergenic bedding after whining that standard prison pillows were triggering her allergies.
Her gripes in the past have targeted everyone from inmates and guards to a 'rude' laundry woman.
'Max is the prison Karen,' an insider told DailyMail.com in 2023. 'She can file a grievance over anything.
'She complains about the food, the bedding, when they cancel temple because of bad weather or are late setting up her legal calls.
'The latest battle is over hair dye. Maxwell has gray showing through and she's filed a grievance because they don't sell it anymore.
Maxwell's beefs with authorities began when she first landed at the fearsome Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, while awaiting trial.
Her attorneys accused jail authorities of breaching her rights by shining a torch in her cell every 15 minutes, subjecting her to invasive searches and filming her at all hours.
When she got to Tallahassee after her conviction 'she immediately wrote Brooklyn up for taking too long to ship her belongings,' said the prison source.
'Then when her shoes arrived, she refused to hand her temporary slip-ons back to the laundry lady.
'That caused a big argument and Max complained that she felt threatened and refused to go back to the laundry unaccompanied.
'That's her in a nutshell. Every aspect of prison life offers an opportunity for her to play the victim. She creates constant drama for staff and inmates.'