In late January, the name of one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims appeared buried in the Epstein files.
The woman’s name had been left unredacted, exposing her identity to the world. The woman, whom I will call Francesca, had in the decades since her abuse gone on to marry, start a family and forge a new life of anonymity.
She was furious — the US Department of Justice (DoJ) had promised to protect survivors of Epstein’s sex-trafficking ring by concealing their names. But above all she was terrified of Ghislaine Maxwell.
In my years reporting on Epstein and Maxwell, his girlfriend and enabler, I have interviewed dozens of survivors. I had never planned to publicly identify Francesca, but I was curious to see if she would speak about her time with the couple, who lured teenage girls from difficult backgrounds with friendship, money, gifts and the promises of help building their careers.
After weeks of messaging Francesca over WhatsApp, she agreed to speak on the phone. She told me how she was recruited by the couple in the 1990s when she was just 15. She said she felt lulled into a false sense of security by Maxwell, a friendly, middle-aged woman with a Yorkshire terrier named Max and a clipped British accent.
Then, one day, she stopped replying to me. “I probably sound like one of those conspiracy people, but if you knew them, there is nothing at all that I would put past them,” Francesca told me in March. “I wish I were more confident that nothing bad would come of speaking,” she said in a final message.
Years on from her abuse, Francesca is among scores of Epstein survivors who still live in fear of repercussions from their time with Epstein and Maxwell.
Epstein is long dead, while Maxwell, 64, is four years into a 20-year federal sentence for sex trafficking. Even so, victims still live in fear of her influence. The prospect of Maxwell being pardoned by the Trump administration, first raised last year after she agreed to speak with Todd Blanche, then deputy attorney-general, has had a further chilling effect on survivors thinking of coming forward.
To this day, the shadow of Maxwell’s abuse looms large over her alleged victims. That abuse has been extensively documented in civil lawsuits and during her 2021 criminal trial, when a courtroom heard how the British former socialite used power, money and influence to “silence and control” victims.
“In a vulnerable time in my life [Ghislaine] had become my everything,” she said. “She was my friend, my mom, my sister, my mentor. The pain of the betrayal from Ghislaine is something I still can’t wrap my head around to this day.”
Francesca, who is not from the US, said she was worried Maxwell may be able to somehow affect her right to remain here, believing that Maxwell retains influence over the media and those in power. She even questioned whether Maxwell was really in prison.
Julie K Brown, the Miami Herald journalist whose reporting on Epstein prompted federal authorities to reopen their criminal investigation into the sex offender, recently speculated, without evidence, that Maxwell and her associates may have been behind recent leaks of emails between Epstein andAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who has denied any wrongdoing.
Brown wrote on her Substack that Maxwell could have intended the documents “to send a message that this is what is at stake if she remains in prison.” The theory, which has not been substantiated, is that Maxwell might hold similar documentation implicating prominent figures including Donald Trump, who in February this year told reporters: “I have nothing to hide. I’ve been exonerated. I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.” The DoJ has described the claims against Trump as “untrue and sensationalist”.
Out of more than a thousand identified survivors of Epstein, only about a dozen have ever come forward publicly, with many citing fears of Epstein’s living associates and co-conspirators.
I spoke to one lawyer who represents a number of survivors, who said he had been approached by women for legal counsel. They pulled out after reports that Maxwell may be offered clemency.
