By Matthew Russell Lee, Author on Patreon Song Ruling
BBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Radio - Podcast
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 24 -- It was Christmas Eve and the number of people in prison, in the United States and around the world, was numberless. But in Kurt's world there was nearly unitary focus on one prison, in pre-trial detention for nearly a year and a half now: Ghislaine Maxwell.
Kurt had once been a volunteer and reporter at the Catholic Worker, but it he didn't practice religion day to day. But he went to midnight mass, not in Chinatown but up the United Nations. And the priest, after a pitch for money and a vague denunciation of government intrusion, did mention the works of mercy including the visiting of prisoners.
Not only Ghislaine's listed lawyer but also, at least in April, Leah Saffian had visited Ghislaine in the Metropolitan Detention Center. Now British TV journalists camped out in front of the prison, one of them reporting inaccurately that if she were convicted, Ghislaine could spend the rest of her life in the MDC.
No one, of course, knew how long Ghislaine's sentence would be, or if Judge Nathan would be the one to impose it. But it would definitely not be served in Brooklyn.
Maybe in Connecticut, where Martha Stewart had been, or down in West Virginia, with the sad opiate army. If that happened, the focus on her would pass, expect perhaps on Christmas, her birthday. Or she might, another reporter quipped macabrely, "pull an Epstein."
Kurt remembered getting the next of Epstein's death, the tabloid photo of the gurney at the nearby hospital, then the indictment of the MCC corrections officers. On an upper floor of 500 Pearl Street, the guards of color was waited on one side of the elevators, the journalist on the other.
Tova Noel, who had to give up her gun, and the other guard were being scapegoated, their supporters and lawyers said - not only unlike what Ghislaine and her family were saying now.
Someone had filmed the family in a law office, with its anachronistic walls of books, sister crying, brother staring into a computer. Was it staged like Leah's In-N-Out Burger shot? Who was it directed at?
Kurt returned again the Freedom of Information document he had just posted, that "Epstein has also provided information to the FBI as agreed upon."
One reader thanked him, during midnight mass no less, that she had printed and framed the document - maybe hyperbole. And framed was another word Ghislaine and her family were using, also hyperbolic.
It would all be known soon, when the jury returned and re-started, maybe ended, its deliberations. #MaximumMaxwell.
Note: On October 29, 2021 and again on November 12 Ghislaine Maxwell and the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed a flurry of motions in limine, heavily redacted; the Government argued that trial exhibits are not public and will be withheld. Inner City Press opposed and opposes the continued secrecy.
Inner City Press will cover the trial, and all the comes before and after it; #CourtCaseCast and song I, Song 2, Song 3, fifth song and now Nov 27 song
The underlying case is US v. Maxwell, 20-cr-330 (Nathan).
***
Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material including Maximum Maxwell, and other Maximum, on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.
