NEW YORK — Victim-shaming failed, so now Ghislaine Maxwell is trying the daddy issues defense.
The disgraced British socialite and her family argue in new court papers that her media mogul father primed her to be manipulated by world-class predator Jeffrey Epstein.
“(As) elder siblings we witnessed our father taking Ghislaine under his wing whereby she became over dependent on his approval and vulnerable to his frequent rapid mood swings, huge rages and rejections,” reads a letter by Maxwell’s two eldest siblings, Anne Halve and Philip Maxwell.
“The effect of our father’s psychologically abusive treatment of her, foreshadowed Epstein’s own ability to exploit, manipulate and control her.”
The claim, included in a sentencing memo from Maxwell’s legal team arguing for leniency, marks a change of tone from her closely watched trial for enabling Epstein’s abuse of girls starting in 1994. During the trial, Maxwell’s lawyers relentlessly slammed her victims as out for money, with drug issues and other skeletons in their closets that made them untrustworthy.
The memo offers insight into Maxwell’s privileged — and troubled — upbringing. Her father, Robert Maxwell, is described as “an overbearing, narcissistic, and demanding father” who was physically abusive.
The filing also gives a glimpse into her two years behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where Maxwell, 60, is now in general population and tutoring inmates planning to take the GED.
One inmate was moved to solitary confinement after telling other detainees she’d been offered money to kill Maxwell, according to the memo.
The memo highlights many of the parallels between Epstein and Maxwell’s dad, Robert Maxwell, who briefly owned the Daily News in the early 1990s. Robert Maxwell’s body was found floating off the coast of Gran Canaria in 1991 near his yacht, The “Lady Ghislaine.”
Ghislaine, his youngest daughter, didn’t believe his death was an accidental drowning. The family patriarch had been accused of engaging in backdoor deals with the Israeli secret service before his death. It emerged that he’d looted close to $1 billion of his employees’ pension funds.
Notably, Maxwell’s sentencing memo never used the word “suicide” to describe Epstein’s death in 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial for sex trafficking of underage victims. Her lawyers merely refer to Epstein’s “death” in custody.
Epstein “was always the central figure: Epstein was the mastermind, Epstein was the principal abuser, and Epstein orchestrated the crimes for his personal gratification,” wrote defense lawyer Bobbi Sternheim.
“Indeed, had Ghislaine Maxwell never had the profound misfortune of meeting Jeffrey Epstein over 30 years ago, she would not be here.”
Maxwell’s legal team insisted she was not “a villain, rich heiress, and vapid socialite.” Instead, they wrote, she’s a talented philanthropist dedicated to the environment and other causes. They pointed to her work developing Bill Clinton’s nonprofit, the Clinton Global Initiative, among her professional achievements. Evidence in Maxwell’s trial showed she and Clinton flew on Epstein’s private jet.
The lawyers wrote that Maxwell had been unfairly smeared for years due to her association with Epstein. Her relationships had fallen apart and many of her friends deserted her for “fear of association and the lure of ‘cancel culture,’” her legal team wrote.
Maxwell is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28 in Manhattan Federal Court.
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