Ghislaine Maxwell Will Seek Plea Bargain But Won’t Discuss Prince Andrew, Friend Says

(TMU) – Now that infamous sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has been arrested and placed in custody, speculation is rife that she will soon begin “naming names” and exposing the grisly child molestation ring that she helped run for her former boyfriend and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

However, she is reportedly not expected to spill any details about Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, according to a confidante of Maxwell.

Just following her surprise arrest last Thursday in a secluded rural retreat in New Hampshire by over 20 armed federal agents and police, the infamous 58-year-old socialite was placed in nearby Merrimack County jail. She is expected to soon be transferred to New York before she arrives in court later this week.

Maxwell faces charges of helping Epstein “identify, befriend and groom” a number of girls, including one as young as 14, so that the late billionaire could sexually abuse them.

Her dramatic arrest comes after nearly a year of speculation about where she disappeared to following Epstein’s mysterious alleged suicide in a New York jail last summer.

The arrest also came as the 60-year-old disgraced Duke of York continues to remain silent and refuse to provide information to U.S. authorities over the extent of his friendship with Epstein, as well as his connection to the late financier’s string of crimes.

Laura Goldman, a former investment banker who said she has known Maxwell since she moved to the U.S., told BBC Radio 4’s Today on Saturday that her friend was well aware that her time running was nearly over as American authorities sought her out for her connection to Epstein’s sexual exploitation of young girls.

Additionally, she believed that Maxwell “has to” seek a plea bargain allowing her to enjoy a commuted sentence in exchange for her pleading guilty to some charges.

When asked if Maxwell would discuss Prince Andrew, Goldman responded:

“No. She’s always told me that she would never ever say anything about him. I think she felt that he was her friend and she was never ever going to say anything about him. She really felt that in the 90s when her father died that Prince Andrew was there for her, in many ways.”

Like her former partner Epstein, Maxwell is intensely well-connected with various members of the U.S. political and business elite. In recent days, photographs have circulated of her posing at social events with figures ranging from Bill Clinton and Donald Trump to billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, giving rise to suspicion among online users about the significance of their apparent connection to Maxwell.

Maxwell, the daughter of late media mogul and British MP Robert Maxwell, faces up to 35 years in jail.

She is charged with conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts; enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts; conspiracy to transport minors, and transportation of a minor, with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity; and two counts of perjury.

She is accused of grooming multiple minors to engage in sex acts with Epstein by befriending them to ask them about their lives and families while building friendships with the young girls alongside Epstein by taking their victims on social outings or out shopping.

“Maxwell played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend and groom minor victims for abuse,” said Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, reports BBC.

Maxwell would allegedly “try to normalize sexual abuse for a minor victim by… discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when a minor victim was undressed, and/or being present for sex acts involving the minor victim and Epstein.”

“Maxwell and Epstein worked together to entice these minor victims to travel to Epstein’s residences – his residence in New York City on the Upper East Side, as well as Palm Beach, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico,” Strauss added.

In the meantime, U.S. prosecutors have urged Prince Andrew to cooperate with the investigation while lawyers for the victims of Epstein and Maxwell have demanded he “be a man,” “speak up” and stop “deliberately avoiding” U.S. authorities.

However, the Duke of York has persistently denied any connection with the pair’s heinous sexual abuse of minors.

Asked if she believed that Epstein had been controlling Maxwell, Goldman responded: “Yes, I do. That doesn’t mean that what she did was OK.

“I think she thought that if she did one more grooming, found him one more girl, he would marry her. Is that OK? No. She honestly thought that at the end of the day she was going to be Mrs Jeffrey Epstein.”

As for her most recent conversations with Maxwell, Goldman had one clear impression about her friend: “She knew she was coming to the end of the road.”