This morning in court, Ghislaine Maxwell looked anything but unhealthy. She was glowing and relaxed. I was prepared for a shock, but the shock I got was different from the one I’d expected.
Maxwell wasn’t wearing prison garb or handcuffs, but instead a black turtleneck sweater and gray pants. Her hair was completely black and shoulder-length—the same style she wore when her father Robert Maxwell died thirty years ago.
Maxwell smiled when she walked into the courtroom. She chatted amiably with her attorneys. At one point, one of her attorneys, Jeffrey Pagliuca, reached out and brushed her bangs off her forehead. Bobbi Sternheim, another of her lawyers, rubbed her shoulder.
We’ve read news of late from Maxwell’s camp alleging “inhumane” treatment at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, but, in person today, Maxwell didn’t look malnourished. She looked young and well.
When she walked into the courthouse, I thought, “Wow—she looks the same as always” but then realized: no, she actually looks better than she did about five years ago.
After 15 months in jail, Maxwell is finally facing trial. This week, the pool of 600 potential jurors will begin being whittled down to the eventual 12 jurors and 6 alternates who will hear opening arguments when they start on Nov 29. Stay tuned for more.

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More from @VickyPJWard

16 Nov
People sometimes forget that Steve Bannon has a background in Hollywood. But that informs everything he does. Bannon is now producing, writing, directing, and starring in his own movie, and we are going to see scenes right out of the Roger Stone playbook.
What we are watching is the self-canonization of Steve Bannon for the MAGA crowd. There’s not going to be a court appearance or a moment in public where Bannon will miss an opportunity to deliver rhetoric rallying the war cry to the millions of people who follow him.
From my reporting and the times I’ve spoken with him, I know full well that perception is reality in Bannon's world. Bannon is basically resurrecting himself even if he goes to jail—especially if he goes to jail—as the leader of the populist right.
Read 4 tweets
12 Oct
Donald Trump’s family company is reportedly in advanced discussions to sell the rights to its Washington, D.C., hotel in a deal worth more than $370 million, per @CraigKarmin @bykowicz. wsj.com/articles/trump…
As a reminder: According to federal documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Friday, the hotel lost more than $70 million while Trump was in office despite reaping millions in payments from foreign governments. washingtonpost.com/business/2021/…
Trump’s company had earlier tried to sell the lease in 2019 but pulled the hotel off the market when the pandemic struck. washingtonpost.com/business/2020/…
Read 4 tweets
10 Aug
Two years ago today, Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in New York. Many people remain unconvinced by the coroner’s suicide ruling. To this day, there remain questions about the circumstances surrounding his death.
The guards on duty the night Epstein died were supposed to check inmates twice an hour. But footage shows them at their desks, browsing the Internet, and sleeping for more than two hours of their shifts. npr.org/2021/05/22/999…
The surveillance footage taken from outside Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell on the day of his first apparent suicide attempt was accidentally destroyed, allegedly due to “clerical error.” nbcnews.com/news/us-news/s…
Read 8 tweets
10 Aug
The Epstein/Maxwell story has, in a sense, always boiled down to Prince Andrew & Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Very few people outside of Palm Beach had heard of Epstein before that infamous photo—taken in March 2001 of a then-17yo Giuffre—first appeared in a British tabloid in 2011.
The picture was reportedly taken at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London home.
There is Andrew, in a white button-down shirt, top button undone, with his arm around the bare midriff of the 17-year-old Giuffre. Smiling proudly off to the side, like some sort of triumphant mama hen, is Ghislaine Maxwell. And Epstein? He’s said to have taken the photo.
Read 9 tweets
21 Jul
I was thrilled to join @danprimack on @AxiosReCap today to discuss yesterday’s arrest of Tom Barrack whose indictment raises some really, really troubling questions. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ins…
I heard the name Tom Barrack as far back as 2014 when I was writing a book about the world of New York real estate. He was a big connector between the New York players and the money in the Middle East.
I wrote a whole book—"Kushner, Inc."—around the allegation that the Trump Administration’s foreign policy was run basically as one big effort to bail out Jared Kushner’s family’s financial problems.

Tom Barrack was the man in the middle.
Read 17 tweets
20 Jul
My sources in NY real estate are asking if the indictment against Tom Barrack is actually about Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) violations or if it’s just another way to get to Trump, if Weisselberg does not talk.
The other speculation is that this is a way to get to Kushner, since Barrack’s dealings were more with Kushner than Trump.
Tom Barrack’s connections are all over the place, and he has long had his name tied with allegations of crony capitalism.
Read 22 tweets

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