Latest news with #GhislaineMaxwell
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Will Trump's former high-society friend Ghislaine Maxwell be the next infamous inmate to be pardoned?
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, can reveal. Maxwell is currently serving 20 years in federal prison for being notorious sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein 's enabler. 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 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 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 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.'
Forbes
3 days ago
- General
- Forbes
Epstein Accuser Sues Federal Government For Allegedly Ignoring Sexual Abuse Claims
One of Jeffrey Epstein's earliest accusers filed a lawsuit against the federal government Thursday, accusing the FBI of refusing to act on her claims since she first reported sexual abuse nearly 30 years ago, as the Trump administration's FBI faces greater scrutiny about the Epstein-related documents it has repeatedly promised to release. Maria Farmer, who first brought sexual abuse claims against Epstein to the FBI in 1996, sued the federal government in Washington, D.C. federal court on Thursday, alleging the FBI 'chose to do absolutely nothing' after she warned the agency about Epstien's alleged sex crimes. According to Farmer's lawsuit, she said she was sexually assaulted by Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, while she stayed at Epstein's estate as an 'artist-in-residence' in 1996, and she accused them of stealing nude images of her minor sisters which Farmer had kept and used for her paintings. While reporting her concerns to the FBI, Farmer said the agency hung up on her and failed to follow up or properly investigate, and she accused the agency of violating its Manual for Investigative Operations and Guidelines, which tasks the FBI with investigating violations of federal law. Farmer also alleged she contacted the FBI in 2023 to request the agency investigate why it had ignored her complaints, to which the FBI allegedly responded they had other 'priorit[ies] right now' and would 'further assess' at a later time. Farmer said the FBI's alleged negligence 'allowed Epstein to continue to sex traffic and sexually exploit girls and young women for years' and that 'countless young women and girls would have been spared' if her concerns were investigated earlier. Farmer's lawsuit calls out Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom she notes has claimed the FBI possesses 'thousands' of videos of child pornography from Epstein, stating her claims 'could have been corroborated with minimal investigatory effort.' Farmer is an artist and painter who met Epstein and Maxwell in the mid-1990s when she was in her mid-20s, who purchased some of her work and later hired her as an art scout for his collection. Farmer said Epstein encouraged her to live in his New Albany, Ohio, home during the summer of 1996 as an 'artist-in-residence,' where Farmer said he and Maxwell sexually assaulted her in late July or early August. She accused Epstein and Maxwell of attempting to silence her by buying her off and warning 'bad things would happen to her' if she spoke up, according to Farmer's lawsuit. In 2019, Farmer filed an affidavit in New York federal court as part of another Epstein-related lawsuit accusing Epstein and Maxwell of sexual assault. Farmer also blamed Victoria's Secret billionaire Les Wexner, a close Epstein associate who owned the property Epstein's home was on. Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have repeatedly promised for months to release documents relating to Epstein, though they have not provided a timeline, provoking criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. The Justice Department released what it called the 'first phase' of documents in a flashy reveal with right-wing influencers in February, though most of these documents were already leaked or publicly available. In March, Bondi said she had received a 'truckload' of documents from the FBI without offering a timeline for their release. Patel said in an interview Wednesday the FBI is 'diligently' working on releasing Epstein documents, stating it 'takes time to go through years of investigations.' Both Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said in interviews this week they have video proving Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019, rebuffing a long-held conspiracy theory that he was killed because of his connections to the political and social elite. While campaigning for the presidency in 2024, President Donald Trump—who was named in Epstein's flight logs from the 1990s but has not been linked to his crimes—said in an interview with podcaster Lex Fridmann he would be 'inclined' to release documents related to Epstein if he won the election. The case mirrors multiple lawsuits that have accused the government of ignoring Epstein accusers' claims. A group of eight Epstein accusers previously sued the federal government in September in D.C. federal court, similarly accusing the FBI of failing to investigate allegations of sexual abuse for decades. The women said they were abused by Epstein and his associates between 2002 and 2017. Twelve Epstein accusers sued the government in New York federal court in February 2024, alleging the FBI 'permitted Jeffrey Epstein to sex traffic and sexually abuse scores of children and young women' by failing to 'investigate the reports, tips, and evidence it had of rampant sexual abuse and sex trafficking by Epstein.' FBI leaders say jail video shows Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide (NBC News) Attorney General Bondi Again Says More Epstein Files Are Coming—But Doesn't Give Timeline (Forbes)
Daily Mail
7 days ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The shocking new mystery after Virginia Giuffre's death - as disturbing details of a fresh family rift are revealed
Mystery surrounds the final resting place of Virginia Giuffre four weeks after she was found dead in her home. Giuffre took her own life on April 25 at her farmhouse in Neergabby, north of Perth, after the 'toll... became unbearable', according to her family. Her body was transferred to the state mortuary for a post-mortem examination to determine the official cause of death. It's understood her body was released to her estranged husband Robert Giuffre and her ashes are 'pending collection' at Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park in Perth. Now distraught loved ones have broken their silence claiming they were shunned from her funeral and unable to pay their final respects. 'It's absolutely devastating,' a close source told Daily Mail Australia. 'We are disgusted, no funeral, no notice to anyone. It's so disrespectful to Virginia that her life wasn't even worth a funeral. 'He is so selfish that he wouldn't let anyone else hold one either. The online registry shoes Virginia Giuffre's body has already been cremated 'Her family in the US wanted to attend as would so many other people who loved her, but nobody was told what is going on. 'Legally Robert is her next-of-kin but it's not as simple as that. Not in any way.' Giuffre was a victim of Jeffery Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who she accused of sex trafficking her to Prince Andrew when she was just 17. Prince Andrew has always denied the allegations but reportedly paid Giuffre millions to settle a lawsuit over her claims against him. Her death came just weeks after she said on social media she only had four days to live following a car crash, which police later described as a minor collision. She had already split with Mr Giuffree, her husband of 22 years, and had admitted her heartbreak at being estranged from her three teenage children. It is not known how her estate will be divided or if she even had a will. While she was separated from her husband, the pair were not officially divorced. Giuffre escaped Epstein's clutches after meeting her husband-to-be while on a massage training course in Thailand that Epstein had paid for. It's now understood her ashes are 'pending collection' at Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park in Perth She had a whirlwind romance with the martial arts instructor and they married within a week in 2002 before moving to the NSW Central Coast and setting up home together. They lived there for 11 years before moving to the US, until they returned to Australia and bought a $1.7million six-bedroom beachside mansion in Perth in 2020. The marriage is believed to have broken down last year, with Giuffre moving into their weekend getaway farmhouse, while her husband remained in Perth with their children Giuffre's brothers Sky and Danny Wilson had been staying with her at her $1.3million farmhouse after she claimed to be on her deathbed. They have since launched a public fundraiser in her memory, because they expect it will take years to divide up her estate. They are seeking to raise $15,000 to build a memorial in her memory that will be open for the public to visit. 'It is our intention with this fund that we create a public memorial not just for family but for survivors and supporters from all over to visit and share space with Virginia. 'She deserves to have a permanent mark in this world that demonstrates her lasting impact.' While the coroner had released Giuffre's body it is understood that the outcome of the investigation and official cause of death could take more than a year to finalise.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Yahoo
Virginia Giuffre Laid to Rest During Private Funeral in Australia, 1 Month After Her Death by Suicide at Age 41
Virginia Giuffre was cremated during a private funeral in Australia, one month after her death by suicide at age 41 Her loved ones recently gathered at the Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park in Padbury to say their final goodbyes Virginia, who was one of the most outspoken accusers of convicted sex offenders Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as Prince Andrew, is survived by her three children, ages 19, 16 and 15Virginia Giuffre has been laid to rest. Virginia's loved ones recently said their final goodbyes to her when she was cremated during a private funeral, PEOPLE can confirm. The West Australian, which was the first to report the news, said the service took place at the Pinnaroo Valley Memorial Park in Padbury, Australia. An exact date for the funeral for Virginia — who was one of the most outspoken accusers of convicted sex offenders Jeffery Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as Prince Andrew — was not shared. Family and friends gathered at the Australian cemetery a month after Virginia's death by suicide at age 41 on April 24. Virginia's family did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment on Sunday, May 25. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Virginia's family revealed the news of her death in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE, expressing that she "lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking." "Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors," the family continued. "Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure. The light of her life were her children Christian, Noah, and Emily." Western Australia Police Force media liaison officer Shelby Brady later confirmed to PEOPLE that emergency services responded to a residence in Neergabby and found an unresponsive 41-year-old. Emergency first aid was rendered, but the woman was declared dead at the scene. According to authorities, "early indications" showed that "the death is not suspicious." Virginia's sister-in-law, Amanda Roberts, remembered her while speaking to PEOPLE shortly after her death. 'The world lost a fierce warrior. She wished for all survivors to get justice. That is who she was," said Amanda, adding through tears: "We lost our sister. Her children lost their mother, and her mother lost her daughter." "She was one of the most beautiful souls you would ever have the chance to meet," Amanda continued of Virginia. "But I think sometimes, that load and that weight becomes too much to carry.' Amanda added that her husband, Sky Roberts, Virginia's brother, was staying with her when she died. Virginia's death came following a tumultuous start to 2025. On March 30, she said in an Instagram post that she was near death and in the hospital after a car she was in days earlier was struck by a school bus going more than 49 mph. 'I've gone into kidney renal failure," Virginia wrote alongside a photo of herself lying in a hospital bed, her face seen covered in bruises. "They've given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology.' She then came forward days later with allegations of abuse against her husband of 22 years, Robert Giuffre, telling PEOPLE in an exclusive statement, "I was able to fight back against Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein who, abused and trafficked me. But I was unable to escape the domestic violence in my marriage until recently. After my husband's latest physical assault, I can no longer stay silent." (Robert's attorney declined to comment on the allegations.) Sky and Amanda later told PEOPLE that Virginia had been having marital issues for a while and she separated from Robert — the father of her three children, ages 19, 16 and 15 — sometime around August 2023. Before her death, Virginia founded Speak Out, Act, Reclaim (SOAR), a non-profit organization that provides support for survivors of sexual assault. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to Read the original article on People
The Sun
25-05-2025
- The Sun
Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre's funeral held in secret in Australia as cops provide update on her tragic death
VIRGINIA Giuffre's family have held a secret funeral for the Prince Andrew accuser. Giuffre was tragically found dead at her remote farmhouse, an hour north of Perth, on April 25 after years of torment. 3 3 3 She was the most prominent victim of notorious Epstein and was found dead by police before her family revealed she had died by suicide. She said she was trafficked to Prince Andrew by Epstein and his madam, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell. Mum-of-three Virginia, who was estranged from her husband Robert, had also accused the royal of sexual abuse on three occasions, including when she was just 17. Prince Andrew has denied the allegations and claimed to have never met Virginia. is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video. Like us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun.
