Newsmax’s Greg Kelly Says Convicted Child Sex Trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell ‘Just Might Be a Victim’

Newsmax host Greg Kelly said on his show Thursday that convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell “just might be a victim” — a comment that drew loud and swift backlash.

Maxwell is the former girlfriend and accomplice of deceased convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein, and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted of one count of sex trafficking a minor, one count of transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and three counts of conspiracy. Multiple victims testified at Maxwell’s trial about how she not only encouraged young women and underage girls to have sex with Epstein, but that Maxwell sometimes assaulted them herself.

The “Epstein files” have become a major thorn in the side for President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other top White House officials, as the administration faces growing criticism over the failure to produce the files that Bondi and other cabinet appointees repeatedly promised. The fallout from the Epstein files flop has emboldened Trump’s political opponents and reignited bitter internecine MAGA civil wars — messily playing out on social media and leading to calls for Trump to fire or demand the resignation of Bondi and other administration officials. Many of the calls for the release of the Epstein files are coming from other Republicans.

The president has sought to downplay his friendship with Epstein, furiously denouncing him as a “creep” and claiming the two were never close — claims that have been contradicted by a steadily-unearthed series of photos, videos, and witnesses who were around the two years ago. However, regarding Maxwell, Trump has repeatedly made supportive comments that he “wish[es] her well” and was “not looking for anything bad for her.”

The news this week of DOJ officials meeting with Maxwell at the Tallahassee federal women’s prison where she’s being held set off a wave of speculation that she would attempt to curry favor with the administration in exchange for a pardon. Trump himself refused to rule out that possibility on Friday.

In this context, the clip from Thursday’s episode of Greg Kelly Reports stands out as an example of a MAGA-friendly media outlet possibly testing the waters for a way to spin the story in a way that’s more favorable to Trump.

“Let’s find out, what is this all about,” said Kelly about Maxwell’s DOJ interviews, as well as a subpoena that had been sent by the House Oversight Committee.

“I think this is great,” Kelly continued. “I do have a feeling that she has been — she just might be a victim. She just might be. There was a rush to judgment. There was a lot of chaos there for a while. Alright, granted, she hung out with Jeffrey Epstein, and I know that’s apparently not good, but she’s in jail, for how long now? Twenty years. A 20 year sentence.”

Kelly then cued up a clip of Alan Dershowitz, whom he described as “one of the greatest attorneys who ever lived” being interviewed by his former Newsmax colleague Eric Bolling.

When Bolling asked Dershowitz if Maxwell should be in jail, Dershowitz answered, “she shouldn’t be, but she is,” arguing that she was “really serving Jeffrey Epstein’s sentence” because he was dead and “there was no one else to prosecute because there was no real information against anyone else.”

Dershowitz added that he thought the length of her sentence was more like what Epstein would have gotten and that he hoped her appeal was successful.

“She deserves to be out, and maybe she never deserved to be there in the first place,” Kelly emphasized, arguing that the descriptions of Maxwell and Epstein as “perverts” and “child molesters” were things we had “heard” from the “media” and “prosecutors.”

“Prosecutors prosecuted President Trump over nothing,” Kelly continued, with a smirk on his face. “I don’t know, but I’m skeptical of everything and everybody these days, and you should be too.”

It should perhaps be noted that Dershowitz’s name appeared in Epstein’s flight logs and he was accused of participating in his sex trafficking, specifically in a lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre. He denied the allegations and Giuffre ended up dropping her lawsuit.

The clip of Kelly was shared by multiple people on social media, including independent journalist Yashar Ali, who added a scathing criticism of the Newsmax host’s comments.

Wrote Ali:

Newsmax host Greg Kelly said on his show that Ghislaine Maxwell might be a victim and that there was a rush to judgment.

At least 40 women have credibly accused Ghislaine Maxwell of either directly abusing them, grooming them, or facilitating their sexual exploitation on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein.

Some of them have detailed these allegations on camera.

Kelly suggests that only the media and prosecutors are the source of these allegations — again, 40 women have credibly accused Ghislaine Maxwell of various forms of sexual misconduct, including sexual violence.

This is not some creation of the media and prosecutors.

In fact, it was some in the media and in law enforcement who shielded Epstein for much too long.

Business Insider legal correspondent Jacob Shamsian also took issue with Kelly’s defense of Maxwell, sharing multiple screenshots from the victim testimony from her trial.

Several other reactions are below.

Watch the video above via Newsmax.