Ian Maxwell exclusive: ‘My sister Ghislaine is being used as Epstein’s scapegoat’
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As the police investigation into Andrew Mountbatten Windsor continues, his friend Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in the heinous crimes of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But as the final Epstein files are released to the public, a haunting question remains: has she become a “convenient stand-in” for a dead man while other high-profile figures walk free?
In this exclusive episode of The Daily T, Camilla Tominey and Tim Stanley are joined in the studio by Ghislaine’s brother Ian Maxwell, who is a consistent and vocal defender of his sister.
Ian discusses the family’s belief that Ghislaine has been selectively prosecuted as a scapegoat, why she invoked the Fifth Amendment before the US house oversight committee and the reality behind her plea to President Donald Trump.
Ian also speaks about his sister’s life behind bars, the “suspicious” deaths of both Epstein and the Maxwells’ father Robert, and why he doesn’t believe it matters if the infamous photograph of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor with Virginia Giuffre is real or not.
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Editor: Camilla Tominey
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph |
| 0:07.0 | As Andrew Mountbatten Windsor is arrested, his friend Gillane Maxwell sits behind bars for her part in the crimes committed by convicted sex offender, Geoffrey Epstein, sentenced to 20 years. |
| 0:22.6 | But her family believes she was used as a scapegoat for the crimes of Epstein, with many of the high-profile men mentioned in the files walking free. |
| 0:30.6 | Today we speak exclusively to Ian Maxwell, the brother of Gillane, to ask why he still believes his sister is a convenient stand-in for a dead |
| 0:39.8 | sex offender. Welcome to the Daily Tea with me Tim Stanley. And me, Camilla, across Europe, significant figures of being investigated or even arrested in relation to |
| 1:05.0 | Jeffrey Epstein, of which the most high profile, of course, is our very own Andrew Mountbatten, Windsor. |
| 1:11.5 | It's striking, isn't it? |
| 1:13.0 | In the United States, the only person who has been successfully convicted and put away for this crime is Galane Maxwell, a British woman. |
| 1:24.2 | Yes, from a extremely famous British media dynasty, the Maxwell's, daughter of Robert. |
| 1:31.4 | Yes. Leading some to speculate that while America declines to prosecute its own elite, |
| 1:37.8 | it has picked on the one woman who was seen as close to Jeffrey Epstein. |
| 1:44.1 | And Maxwell recently appeared in a video link before the US House Oversight Committee |
| 1:49.6 | as part of investigations tied to Epstein. |
| 1:53.1 | She invoked the Fifth Amendment, Tim, so she refused to speak, although this was later |
| 1:58.3 | clarified as her not wanting to jeopardise her own habeas corpus appeal against her original trial. |
| 2:06.6 | That is being orchestrated by her legal team, but also her brother, Ian Maxwell, who's going to join us on the Daily Tea very shortly. |
| 2:15.6 | There's been quite a lot of reporting of the conditions that Gillane Maxwell |
| 2:18.9 | had been in in a prison in Florida, where she spent a great deal of time in solitary confinement. |
| 2:25.8 | She's now in an open prison. She hit the headlines last week with a suggestion that in order to seek clemency from President Trump, |
| 2:37.7 | she may have information that would be useful to Americans on the culpability of both him |
| 2:44.1 | and his predecessor, Bill Clinton, which obviously made significant column inches both in the States |
| 2:50.7 | and in the UK. |
... |
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