She’s inmate No. 02879-509 in Florida. But once again, Ghislaine Maxwell is holding court

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While Ghislaine Maxwell awaited trial for sex trafficking in a Brooklyn jail, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals lobbied to ensure that she had vegan meals.

It’s unclear when the heiress gave up meat. She was spotted scarfing down a burger, fries and shake at a Los Angeles In-N-Out Burger in 2019.

When the British socialite’s family lost its fortune and she moved to New York in the 1990s, she found a friend to lend her a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park to start a new life.

Now, as inmate No. 02879-509 ‒ serving 20 years for her role in conspiring to recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls ‒ she wants her freedom. And the country waits to see if President Donald Trump, whose reputation hangs on what she says, will give her a pardon.

In many ways, Maxwell has always been in charge – from becoming a confidante of the late financier Jeffrey Epstein and connecting the rich and famous to turning the tables on lawyers during a deposition. She does so with a hint of entitlement that comes from her privileged background, and a lot of moxie.

“I know where you are headed with this and it's nowhere appropriate and it's really unattractive,” she once told a lawyer during a deposition.

Maxwell met with the Department of Justice last week. She spent two days answering questions from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about Epstein and about 100 others possibly involved in the notorious sex-trafficking operation. While they didn’t share what was asked or if Trump – a longtime friend of Epstein – was the focus of any questions, David Markus, an attorney representing Maxwell, said she answered all questions.

"She didn't hold anything back,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal and CNN reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi told Trump in May that he was named multiple times in the government's files on Epstein.

Maxwell, 63, now spends her days teaching yoga and etiquette classes at a federal corrections institute in Florida, waiting to see if she will get what she wants again.

'She was interested in power'

Maxwell wasn’t used to being told no.

She grew up in a 51-room Italianate mansion in the United Kingdom.

She was born on Christmas Day, the ninth child of Elisabeth and Robert Maxwell, in 1961. Two days later, the couple’s oldest child, Michael, was injured in a car wreck on his way home from a dance and left in a coma. Elisabeth spent every morning of that next year at the hospital, talking to her son in hopes of bringing him back to consciousness.

The family fell apart, Maxwell's mother would write in her 1994 memoir, “A Mind of My Own: My Life with Robert Maxwell.”

“The two little ones were seemingly unaware of the tragedy, but Ghislaine, who should have been the center of our love and attention, was hardly given a glance and became anorexic whilst still a toddler,” Elisabeth Maxwell wrote.

 “She planted herself in front of me and said simply, ‘Mummy, I exist.’ I was devastated,” she wrote. “And we all made a great effort with her, fussing over her so much that she became spoiled.”

Michael spent seven years in a coma before he died. Maxwell went to boarding school at 8 and later to the University of Oxford.

"It was very clear to me even as an undergraduate that she was interested in power and money," Anna Pasternak, a writer who knew Maxwell from Oxford, told the BBC in 2022. "She was one of those people at parties who always looked over your shoulder to see if there was somebody more powerful or more interesting while she was air-kissing you."

Maxwell’s father died in 1991. It is unknown whether he fell or jumped from his yacht, which he named after his daughter, Lady Ghislaine. Shortly after, it was revealed that he had stolen $824 million from pension funds.

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein's relationship from 1990s to today

Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein appeared to be friends in the 90s and early 2000s, but had not spoken for 15 years before Epstein's death.

A relationship with mutual benefits

Maxwell and Epstein were inseparable for almost a decade.

She met Epstein, then a hedge fund manager, through a mutual friend when she moved to New York City in 1991. She was 30; he was 38.

The friendship made sense. She knew wealthy and connected people. She has been photographed with Prince Andrew, Naomi Campbell, Mick Jagger, and Michael Bloomberg. Epstein needed them. She needed to maintain the lifestyle provided by her late father, who had owned the Mirror Group and the New York Daily News.

Maxwell and Epstein dated for a while, and then they were friends. She began working for him, taking care of his homes, hiring staff, architects and contractors in 1992 and did so on and off through 2009.

Photos of them from society pages and those shown at her trial often look as if they come from a Ralph Lauren ad, moneyed plaid with a perfect-looking golden retriever in a grassy area, tuxedos and gowns in dark wood paneled rooms.

She wears the uniform of old money: button-ups, crewneck sweaters, minimal makeup and simple jewelry like diamond or pearl stud earrings.

They embrace in front of an ocean, on a yacht, in a helicopter, or on a private jet. He often looks straight ahead; she looks at him. There are celebrities in some: Trump. Harvey Weinstein, Michael Bolton. Paris Hilton.

“We were very friendly,” she would say.

In 1995, Epstein named one of his companies the Ghislaine Corp.

More than 1,000 victims

Maxwell had another job for Epstein.

At her 2021 trial, prosecutors portrayed her as a sophisticated predator who befriended young girls and lured them into sex with Epstein. She bought them gifts, including cowboy boots and Prada purses, flattered them and promised to help support them through school.

“Years of sexual abuse, multiple victims, devastating psychological harm. None of this could have happened without Maxwell,” the prosecutors said of the more than 1,000 victims.

Four women shared stories at her trial, including one woman who was 17 when she met Maxwell in Paris.

“She seemed to be everything that I wanted to be. And she seemed to like me,” said the woman who was referred to as Kate. “I left that feeling exhilarated, like somebody wanted me, like somebody wanted to be my friend.”

Later, Maxwell would invite her to massage Epstein, who initiated sexual contact. This happened several times over the following years in London, New York, Palm Beach and Epstein’s private island.

After the massages, Kate testified, Maxwell always complimented her: “You're such a good girl. And I'm so happy you were able to come. This is really great. And he obviously likes you a lot.”

Annie Farmer testified with her real name at the trial. She had met Maxwell when she was a high school student in Arizona and her older sister worked for Epstein. She said Maxwell told her that Epstein wanted to help her pay for college.

She also said that Maxwell sexually abused her when she visited Epstein’s New Mexico ranch.

“She pulled the sheet down and exposed my breasts and started rubbing on my chest and on my upper breasts,” Farmer said. “I was surprised. I wanted so badly to get off of the table.”

During her trial, Maxwell remained “expressing no frailty and certainly no regret,” The New Yorker reported. Maxwell tried to reverse the roles in court. While a courtroom sketch artist drew her, Maxwell began to sketch the artist back.

Maxwell has maintained she didn’t know about Epstein’s abuse. She said in a 2016 deposition that she learned about the allegations against him “like everybody else, like the rest of the world, when it was announced in the papers.”

And she says she never hired anyone under 18.

“I hired assistants, architects, decorators, cooks, cleaners, gardeners, pool people, pilots. I hired all sorts of people," Maxwell said during a deposition for a civil suit in April 2016. “A very small part of my job was to find adult professional massage therapists for Jeffrey. As far as I’m concerned, everyone who came to his house was an adult professional person.”

Perhaps you are not really familiar with what massage is

“Was it Jeffrey's preference to start a massage with sex?” a lawyer asked Maxwell during a 2016 deposition.

“Perhaps you are not really familiar with what massage is. Massage is for health benefits,” Maxwell replied, adding that Epstein received one massage each day.

A few years before Maxwell was arrested, a woman named Virginia Giuffre had alleged she was trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell to Prince Andrew when she was a teenager.

Maxwell denied it, and Giuffre filed a civil suit against her. During Maxwell’s deposition, she calls Giuffre a liar 36 times, argues with attorneys and slaps the table in disgust.

When Giuffre says that Maxwell and Epstein bought her gifts, she doesn’t just say no when shown a photo of Giuffre in a Burberry dress.

 “I would never. The outfit doesn’t work at all.”

Prince Andrew never acknowledged the abuse. He settled a civil lawsuit in 2022 brought by Giuffre. She killed herself in April of this year.

Loyalty, with a price

When Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in 2008, he spent less than 13 months in a minimum-security jail and was allowed to leave for 12 hours a day for work.

He settled several civil lawsuits against him and paid restitution to victims.

Maxwell continued to work for him.

When asked why during the 2016 deposition, she said: “I'm a very loyal person and Jeffrey was very good to me when my father passed away and I believe that you need to be a good friend in people's hour of need and I felt that it was a very thoughtful, nice thing for me to do to help in very limited fashion which was helping if he had any issue with his homes in terms of the staffing issues. It was very very minor, but I felt it was thoughtful in somebody's hour of need.”

Bank records shown at her trial reveal that Epstein paid Maxwell more than $30 million during the years they were together.

The waiting game

In prison, Maxwell is also allowed to spend up to $360 each month in the commissary, shopping once a week for vegetarian items such as $4.95 Fruity Dyno Bites or $2.55 vegan bags of Boom Chicka popcorn.

“You’re supposed to have either hummus or cottage cheese or tofu, but most of the time, it’s tofu if it’s anything or beans. And then the tofu has no seasoning, there’s no seasoning allowed. No salt or pepper or anything. So, it’s beyond tasteless,” she told a British TV host in 2023 of the food served.

As Maxwell serves her time in Florida as one of the most powerful prisoners in American history, she is reportedly in an “honors dorm,” which would likely offer her a private room, however, prison officials won’t confirm her accommodations.

Maxwell was in a detention center in Brooklyn before she was transferred to the Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee in 2022. Some of her crimes took place in Florida.

While at the Brooklyn center, the PETA's president sent a letter on her behalf to get her access to more nonmeat meals.

It is believed that Maxwell is receiving vegan meals in Florida. The prison wouldn’t comment, but a PETA spokeswoman confirmed, saying the group advocated for non-meat meals “not only for vegans but for people who are convicted of violent crime, as we believe they should not be permitted to engage in more violent acts by eating animals.”

On July 24 and 25, she was able to leave the prison for the first time to meet with DOJ lawyers at the federal courthouse in Tallahassee.

Maxwell has sought to overturn her conviction and has filed a petition with the Supreme Court, which the DOJ has opposed.

When asked on July 28 if he would consider pardoning Maxwell, Trump said he is “allowed” to, but it would be “inappropriate” to discuss it.

After her 2020 arrest, when asked if Maxwell might cut a deal with prosecutors, Trump said: "I just wish her well." 

The one thing Maxwell could never have

Was Epstein the one thing Maxwell wanted but could never have?

She was asked in a 2016 deposition if she was Epstein’s girlfriend.

“Define what you mean by girlfriend,” Maxwell said.

“Were you in a relationship with him where you would consider yourself his girlfriend? Did you ever consider yourself his girlfriend?” the lawyer asked.

“That's a tricky question,” Maxwell says.

“There were times when I would have liked to think of myself as his girlfriend,” she says.

When asked about their relationship again, she says: “I don't know if I would have ever characterized myself as his girlfriend, but at that time (redacted) was with him as much if more than I was.”

Her job “was to take care of Jeffrey’s needs,” Kate testified at trial.

With Epstein dead, Maxwell awaits the second-best thing: her freedom.

Laura Trujillo is a national columnist focusing on health and wellness. She is the author of "Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal," and can be reached at ltrujillo@usatoday.com.