The first photo in three years of Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend and alleged procurer of underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein, was staged by her friend and lawyer, according to the Daily Mail.
The picture, obtained by the New York Post last week, shows Maxwell at a Los Angeles-area In-N-Out burger reading The Book of Honor: The Secret Lives and Deaths of CIA Operatives. The photo shows Maxwell staring into the camera with a tray of food close. A shaggy dog is seen resting at the 57-year-old’s feet. Leah Saffian, Maxwell’s pal and attorney, is reportedly the Post‘s source for the picture. The newspaper claimed that the individual who took the photo alleged Maxwell was surprised by the encounter, saying “Well, I guess this is the last time I’ll be eating here!”
The Daily Mail states:
According to the photograph’s metadata, reviewed by DailyMail.com, the photograph is tagged with ‘Meadowgate’. Metadata provides information about the rights of the photograph to users. Saffian is president of Meadowgate Media Investments Inc, according to public records. The In-N-Out burger joint picture was published by the New York Post on Thursday after they obtained it from Saffian, 60.
The photo of Maxwell has been the subject of intense scrutiny since its release with a Daily Mail report suggesting it could have been photoshopped:
The Mail on Sunday reported this weekend that one of America’s biggest outdoor advertising companies alleged that at least one photo of Maxwell had been altered. Behind Maxwell can be seen a bus shelter displaying an ad for the movie ‘Good Boys’ which opened in the U.S. this past Friday.
There’s only one problem: That particular bus shelter has displayed a poster advertising the Providence St Joseph’s Medical Centre since July 28 – and continues to do so, according to Outfront Media spokeswoman Carly Zipp. ‘We think it was Photoshopped,’ says Zipp, in New York. ‘We do not have any records of this [‘Good Boys’ poster] being posted there.’
Several other critics have alleged obvious alterations to the photo.
Maxwell, the daughter of a British publishing magnate who died under mysterious circumstances, is one of the most prominent figures left from the Epstein orbit after his suicide in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. And she could well be a co-conspirator now in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors, who have made clear the case is far from over.
“If I were drafting an indictment against her, it would be the same conspiracy to traffic in underage minors,” said David S. Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice in Miami. “That’s what it is. That’s what the conspiracy would be.”
The whereabouts of Maxwell are also mysterious. Reports had her living in Britain, Paris and with tech CEO Scott Borgerson in Massachusetts, but he told reporters this week that was not true.
Maxwell has said nothing publicly since Epstein’s death.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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