An investigative reporter who covers the Jeffrey Epstein case has detailed how some victims of the disgraced financier hold Ghislaine Maxwell just as accountable.
Tara Palmeri, who has reported extensively on the two, told The Daily Beast Podcast that narratives online that Maxwell is being “persecuted just because she’s a woman” are “extremely frustrating.”
“She assaulted a lot of the girls,” Palmeri told host Joanna Coles. “I mean, she did that herself. She was with him, sexually assaulting them, on top of grooming them.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“When I talk to a lot of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, so many of them are actually even more angry at Ghislaine Maxwell than they are at Jeffrey, because they feel that she used the fact that she was a woman to lure them in,” added Palmeri, who hosted the Broken: Jeffrey Epstein podcast.
“Because little girls don’t just show up on a 50-year-old man’s doorstep. They were brought in by a woman who not only was posh, well-educated, elegant, spoke well, showed interest in them, wanted to show mentorship, promised them that she could fulfil their dreams.”
Maxwell has been back in the headlines after weeks of controversy over the Trump administration’s decision not to release further materials about Epstein, the convicted sex offender and financier who died while awaiting trial in 2019. Amid sustained pressure from MAGA supporters, the Justice Department on Tuesday announced that its prosecutors were in talks to meet with Maxwell to ascertain if she has information to share about any additional perpetrators.
The move was viewed as an effort to appease Trump’s base, and raised concerns that Maxwell—who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for child sex trafficking and other crimes—would seek to leverage the meeting for a reduced sentence.
Palmeri also spoke of a disturbing detail from Epstein’s 40th birthday party, in light of The Wall Street Journal’s recent report about a racy birthday card Donald Trump allegedly sent to Epstein for his 50th.
Palmeri said the 40th was an “equally depraved event.” She said a former friend of Maxwell’s that she had interviewed, journalist and occasional singer Christopher Mason, said he was asked by the socialite to write and sing a song at the party.
“Ghislaine asked that the song include his 24-hour erections, and his love of schoolgirls. And it was sung before all these people,” Palmeri said.
Mason told Vanity Fair in 2020 he thought it was “odd” at the time, but Maxwell “clearly thought that that was something that was going to amuse him.”
Palmeri said these types of events were designed to help guests feel more comfortable and drop their guard.
“She wanted everyone to think it’s a laugh and these girls are party favors and we’re all in on it. ‘It’s just fun, don’t worry.’ And that’s how... she actually groomed the elites in some ways,” she said.
“I mean, she would literally describe the girls as tissues,” she added. “She said, you can throw them away. I mean, this is a woman who really dehumanized these children.”
Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 for conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors over the course of a decade. She was found guilty of five counts related to the abuse and trafficking of underage girls.
New episodes of The Daily Beast Podcast are released every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Follow our new feed on your favorite podcast platform at beast.pub/dailybeastpod and subscribe on YouTube to watch full episodes.
