Believe the Children, Not Their Rapists
I can't believe this even needs to be said, but it does.
The Performance of Redemption
There is something profoundly disorienting—infuriating, really—about watching Ghislaine Maxwell return to center stage. A convicted sex trafficker, now being treated as if she were some misunderstood Cassandra of elite depravity, rather than one of its most polished architects. Maxwell is suddenly the subject of renewed political attention, having reportedly sat for a nine-hour interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche—a man whose most notable qualification for the task is that he previously served as Donald Trump’s personal defense lawyer. If you’re already raising an eyebrow, you’re not alone. What followed was a cascade of surreal developments: rumors of cooperation, potential testimony before Congress, even talk of a presidential pardon, floated by Republican allies like Thomas Massie. As if the woman who helped facilitate the rape of children had now become a credible witness in the prosecution of the very crimes she enabled.
It would be almost funny, if it weren’t so grotesque.
Silencing the Survivors, Elevating the Abuser
In a just society, this would be the moment where we hear from the victims—those trafficked, silenced, disbelieved, and discarded by the very institutions now rushing to resurrect Maxwell as some sort of whistleblowing heroine. Instead, we are witnessing the oldest and most cynical page in the authoritarian playbook: ask the criminal to define the crime. Rewrite history through the voice of its perpetrator. Hand the mic to the abuser and call it truth-telling. Ghislaine Maxwell is not a canary in the coal mine. She is the carbon monoxide.
How She Became Who She Is
The temptation, of course, is to ask why. Why would a woman—educated, polished, with access to power—so willingly become an accomplice to industrial-scale sexual abuse? That question deserves an answer, not to exonerate her, but to understand the ecosystem that produces people like her. Born into obscene privilege, Maxwell was the favorite child of British media mogul Robert Maxwell—a bombastic, bullying narcissist who allegedly ruled his household with emotional volatility and Machiavellian manipulation. She learned early that proximity to power meant protection, and that love was earned through performance. When her father died—under suspicious circumstances, after looting hundreds of millions in pension funds—Maxwell lost her wealth, her status, and her gravitational center.
Then came Jeffrey Epstein.
He was everything her father had been: charismatic, cruel, controlling, and rich. But more than that, he offered her a way back into the circles she craved. She did not just partner with Epstein; she enhanced his operation. She provided social legitimacy, access to European aristocracy, an aura of elite respectability. And she did so while recruiting vulnerable girls, promising opportunity, advancement, mentorship. Then she delivered them to a system designed not for their success, but for their exploitation. This wasn’t just participation. This was choreography. Maxwell made abuse feel like an invitation to a debutante ball.
A Pretty, Perky Predator
What makes her especially dangerous now is not just her past behavior, but the way she embodies a specific type of moral disengagement. Psychologists call it compartmentalization. Maxwell likely did not see herself as a villain. She may have imagined she was helping these girls, grooming them not for degradation, but for advancement. That kind of delusion—common among high-functioning sociopaths—allows predators to maintain the performance of civility while causing irreparable harm. It’s also what makes her an ideal figure for someone like Trump to trot out at this exact moment.
The Real Game: Protecting the Predator-in-Chief
Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. His name appears in flight logs. He appears in photographs. He has been named directly by accusers. And yet, in the same week that his base begins to turn on him for failing to release the full scope of the Epstein evidence—something he once promised in stump speeches—he orchestrates a scene where Maxwell, of all people, is portrayed as his key to unlocking the truth. It is political stagecraft at its most Orwellian. The message is clear: believe me, because my accomplice says I’m innocent.
But nothing Maxwell says now—after conviction, after silence, after years of protecting powerful men—should be believed. Not a word. Her “cooperation” is not about contrition. It is about leverage. It is a strategic performance to reduce her sentence and reframe her legacy. The danger is not simply that she might lie. The danger is that we are, once again, treating her as credible while the actual victims are buried in footnotes.
The Girls Already Told Us the Truth
Because here’s what’s being ignored in all this noise: the girls told the truth. Over and over. Virginia Giuffre. Maria Farmer. Carolyn. Sarah Ransome. Juliette Bryant. They testified. They named names. They risked everything to pull the curtain back. They were met with disbelief, threats, lawsuits, and indifference. And now, with Maxwell back in the headlines, we’re watching history try to replace their voices with hers.
Do Not Let the Predator Rewrite the Crime
There should be no version of events where Ghislaine Maxwell becomes the narrator. The wealthy sociopathic woman who helped traffic teenage girls to billionaires and world leaders should not be asked to define the shape of the crime. To do so is to allow the abuser to rewrite the trauma, to reframe the harm, and to re-weaponize the truth.
So let us be clear.
Ghislaine Maxwell is not a reliable narrator. She is not a brave witness. She is not even a cautionary tale. She is, as she has always been, a servant of power. And if we are foolish enough to believe that her testimony will lead us toward justice, then we are complicit in the very machinery of erasure that enabled this abuse in the first place.
YES! It's fucking ridiculous, and so goddamm shameful. Why in Hell are the victims not believed? Who needs to listen to that fucking predator? And,seriously, are they really going to BELIEVE her? This makes me sick.
It shows how much reactionary neo-patriarchy has already (re)colonized the public discourse that this even has to be said. The criminal gets to spin or partly erase the history of her crimes while the victims are ignored.