Following a two and a half week trial, Ghislaine Maxwell who groomed young
girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, received a 20-year prison sentence.
Now, considering the lack of remorse, she's shown throughout this trial,
throughout this whole ordeal, some might argue that 20 years might not be enough.
And I'm certainly open to hearing those arguments.
Now, Maxwell was sentenced on Tuesday to 20 years in prison in New York.
It's a sex trafficking case of course, and she procured teen girls for
Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.
In addition to sex trafficking, though, Maxwell was convicted of
conspiracy to entice individuals under the age of 17 to travel in
interstate commerce with the intent to engage in illegal sexual activity,
which is a long way of saying that she was engaging in sex trafficking.
Also conspiracy to transport individuals under the age of 17 to travel in
interstate commerce with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Transportation of an individual under the age of
17 with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity and
conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of individuals under the age of 18.
Now, Maxwell's lawyers, of course were fighting for
a much shorter sentence, claiming that, look, I mean, Maxwell,
she's actually a little bit of a victim herself.
She was only the scapegoat for Jeffrey Epstein, now that he is not around for
him to suffer the consequences of what he had done.
He allegedly committed suicide in a prison cell,
although details surrounding that, I will say a little weird and shady.
Now the prosecution also responded to the sentence calling for a longer sentence.
So the prosecution countered with a request for 30 to 55 years based on
the harm done to the victims, also a lack of remorse for her crimes and
the argument that disliking jail time isn't a valid excuse to get out early.
Far from being a patsy for Epstein, they argued Maxwell was
instrumental to the abuse and knew what she was doing.
She was a calculating, sophisticated and dangerous criminal who preyed on
vulnerable young girls and groomed them for sexual abuse,
the prosecution said in its submission to the judge.
And we have some statements from Ghislaine Maxwell during the trial and
her reaction to the sentence.
We'll get to that in just a moment, but Cenk,
I wanted to give you a chance to jump in.
>> Okay, 20 years, she served two years of it already,
she's gonna be in her late 70s if she gets out at that point.
I was hoping they would find a way to give her as close to a life
sentence as they could.
So my initial reaction was 20 years is not enough.
This is literally the worst groomer in American history as far as we know.
And by the way, of course, a very good friend of Donald Trump,
that's why he wished her well several times.
But when it comes to the major issue feels
completely left out of all the coverage,
which is is she ever gonna name names?
Did they put some sort of pressure on her to name names?
Are we ever going to find out?
Did trump do it?
Did clinton do it?
Did Prince Andrew do it?
I mean they put her on suicide watch, which then I thought, right, and
now she's got a 20 year sentence.
Is anyone ever going to name names?
>> Are you asking if the powerful are going to pressure
her to disclose other powerful people who may have
engaged in this abusive sexual activity?
Is that what you're asking?
>> [LAUGH] Okay, well, when you put it that way.
Biden actually tried to, well, I don't know if he tried to move the judge, but
he promoted a judge in the middle of this trial, but she wouldn't leave the trial,
she kept going.
So I'm glad she did and she gave out of what is considered
a harsh sentence in the context of these cases.
So that could mean absolutely nothing.
I don't know, but I don't see anyone yelling and screaming,
where are the goddamn names?
And that's what we should all be doing.
>> Yeah, it's a really good point.
And look, it's a 20 year sentence,
I agree with you 20 years considering what she did and the lack of remorse she shown,
I think she should spend the rest of her life in prison.
But, it's in New York, so it's very likely that she will serve the full 20 years.
If it were in California, she might have been let out three years from now.
So I'm glad that she will be serving her time in New York and
she won't be let out super early.
Here and they're incredibly brave because not only were they victimized by this
monster and Jeffrey Epstein, they felt the need to speak out, be part of this trial.
The four women came from single parent households and
faced struggles in their personal lives, which prosecutors said both Maxwell and
Epstein exploited to target them for abuse.
Jane, a soap star who testified under an alias that she'd met Maxwell and
Epstein at 14 while attending summer arts camp in Michigan, Kate,
also using an alias who said at 17, she thought of Maxwell as a friend
before Maxwell forced her into a sexualized massage with Epstein.
So just like most groomers do they look for vulnerable individuals to victimize,
people who might come from broken homes, people who might be suffering
from extreme poverty, just anyone who might have a difficult time in life
that can be exploited for their own disgusting purposes.
And by the way, some of those accusers along with other victims of Maxwell
shared their stories through victim statements released last week,
can't imagine how incredibly difficult it is to relive all that.
And they also illustrated Maxwell's complete utter lack of sympathy for
those people, Virginia I believe that's how you pronounce her name,
never took the stand at the trial, but
she has been very outspoken about what Maxwell did to her.
She had also gone to court against Maxwell and Epstein multiple times.
And here is a quick excerpt from her victim statement,
just to really understand what these women went through.
I wanna be clear about one thing without question,
Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible pedophile.
But I never would have met him if not for you.
For me, and she's talking to Ghislaine Maxwell here of course, for me and for
so many others, you opened the door to hell.
And then Ghislaine, like a wolf in sheep's clothing,
you used your femininity to betray us and you lead us all through it.
There is not a day that goes by that,
I don't ask why Ghislaine did you enjoy hurting us so much?
I worry every single day and night that you will get away with it and
evade being punished.
I will worry about that until you are brought to justice and
what should that justice look like?
You deserve to spend the rest of your life in a jail cell.
You deserve to be trapped in a cage forever,
just like you trapped your victims.
>> Yeah, I don't know man, she was the heiress
of a daughter of a British media mogul Robert Maxwell.
I'm worried about people born rich,
that they just grow up in a culture that lacks empathy for other human beings,
to take 14 year old girls and shepherd them into the hands of this monster.
It's just disgusting in every way.
I think that part of the reason QAnon took off so much is because
child sex abuse in this country, and everywhere unfortunately,
is a way larger problem than people talk about, than people acknowledge.
And so any mention of it triggered people saying, yeah, I know I went through it,
so it must be happening and then when Epstein and Maxwell and
all the rich and powerful friends molested these young girls.
Yeah, I get why people think, I guess that's what the rich and the powerful do.
Is it true that they all do that?
Of course not, right, but when you see this case,
you realize some of them definitely do do that.
And so, I mean, look, is one of our members he wrote in,
she'll be 70 when she gets out, well she'll be in prime age to be a politician,
so- >> God, it's so true, disgusting.
It's so true.
>> Yeah, then she would go to a place where she has a lot of friends, and
there's pictures of her with every kind of celebrity and
powerful person you've ever met.
So in that sense QAnon is nuts,
it's not the Democratic leadership in a basement in the pizza parlor, right?
But at the same time, were there members of the elite that did this?
Definitely.