Ghislaine Maxwell answering for ‘crimes of men,’ says Amanda Knox
Ghislaine Maxwell has found sympathy from Amanda Knox, who was wrongfully jailed and convicted of murder in Italy in 2007. This is despite her admitting that the evidence against the socialite is “pretty damning.”
In a Monday Substack post, Knox claimed to be having “flashbacks” to her own experience when looking at the trials of Maxwell and Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of Theranos being charged with fraud over blood-test technology that prosecutors claim she knew was phony from the start.
Knox blasted coverage of both trials, saying the public “can’t look away from female villains.” Saying she empathized with both defendants, Knox acknowledged she is not entirely convinced both women were simply pawns of dangerous men, the late Jeffrey Epstein in Maxwell’s case, and Theranos co-founder Sunny Balwani in Holmes’ case.
“When it comes to being held accountable for the crimes of men, and being manipulated by other, powerful men within a system and situation wildly out of your control... Hi, my name is Amanda Knox,” she wrote in a post published under Bari Weiss’ Substack channel.
Knox went on to criticize both Maxwell and Holmes for not allowing themselves to be held “accountable.”
“I can’t help but balk at their defense strategies, which seem like a refusal to be held accountable,” Knox said. “While it’s true that even powerful women can yet remain subservient to powerful men, we shouldn’t forget that the most vulnerable people in these equations are not Maxwell and Holmes, but the victims they are trying to brush aside or discredit.”
Knox said the evidence against Maxwell is “pretty damning,” but said she may be facing less public backlash if Epstein were still alive today. Epstein, a former business partner and boyfriend of Maxwell’s, passed away while in a New York prison in 2019. He was facing sex-trafficking charges. The official cause of death was ruled to be suicide. Maxwell has claimed she was not involved in the sexual abuses Epstein was accused of, though multiple accusers have said she was a central figure.
On Holmes, Knox accused the once-promising tech entrepreneur of painting herself as “a victim of Stockholm Syndrome,” which she acknowledged is “possible.”
Not long after Knox’s post, many critics took to social media to point out that they did not see the same “parallels” between Knox’s situations and Maxwell’s.
I believe Amanda Knox is innocent. I don't believe that Maxwell was coerced, she was a willing participant.
— Maggie Gray 🇪🇺 (@CaffeinatedMags) December 13, 2021
Interesting that she'd put herself in the same light, in any way, as Ghislaine and Holmes, for no other reason than they are females...she has nothing in common with those two other than that.
— Dane Clemens (@ClemensDane) December 13, 2021
Knox was wrongfully convicted of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, and spent four years jailed in Italy for a crime of which she would eventually be acquitted in 2015. On her experience, Knox described police coercing her and physically assaulting her into making false statements.
“Most people have so much trouble imagining what it’s like to be psychologically coerced into acting against their will,” she wrote.
