Ghislaine Maxwell proposes calling psychologist who testified at Harvey Weinstein trial that victims’ memories of sexual abuse are unreliable

• Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, has proposed calling on Elizabeth Loftus, 77, as a witness in her upcoming trial, set to start on November 29 
• Loftus has worked on 300 trials, including rapist Harvey Weinstein, serial killer Ted Bundy, and acquitted murderer OJ Simpson  
• She has also allegedly proposed calling Park Dietz, who has worked on the Jeffrey Dahmer trial
• Maxwell has been accused of sexual assault for allegedly grooming teenagers for her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell has allegedly proposed calling on a psychologist who has testified at big-name sexual assault cases, including the likes of Harvey Weinstein. 

Maxwell, 59, who is Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, has allegedly proposed calling in psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, 77, as a witness at her upcoming trial. 

Loftus – a psychology professor and writer who charges $500 an hour for her work, according to the Los Angeles Times – has testified at more than 300 trials, including Weinstein, serial killer Ted Bundy and acquitted murderer OJ Simpson. 

She failed to convince the jury that Annabella Sciorra’s memory was defective at Weinstein’s trial. Sciorra accused him of rape in the early 1990s.

Loftus has spent years researching the malleability of human memory and often claims in court that memories are wrong or distorted. 

‘The world is full of people who support accusers,’ Loftus said in a 2020 interview with the Los Angeles Times. ‘I think people who are accused deserve some modicum of support as well.’

Elizabeth Loftus, 77, has appeared in more than 300 trials has done extensive studies into the unreliability of memory

Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, is reported proposed calling Loftus as a witness at her upcoming trial 

Maxwell was arrested and charged with sexual assault for allegedly grooming teenagers for her then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.  

She has also allegedly called on Park Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist who has worked on the Jeffrey Dahmer trial. 

Loftus has studied the supposed unreliability of witness accounts and memory repression and has used it against sexual assault survivors to support the alleged rapist discontinue the victim’s testimony. 

Bundy used Loftus’ study on inconsistent memories to point out that Carol DaRonch – whom Bundy attacked in her Volkswagen Beetle and got away – had inconsistencies in her initial description of the serial killer and what she later recollected. 

Bundy had dressed as a fake police officer when he attacked DaRonch and witness accounts from her showed that she added more color in her description of the police badge he wore after authorities showed her a picture, and that his car went from white or light blue to the actual color beige. 

‘When people are afraid their memories slip and slide, neglecting details, rearranging facts,’ Loftus said at the time. 

Maxwell, who dated Jeffery Epstein, has been charged and arrested for sexual assault for allegedly grooming teenagers for her then-boyfriend

‘When we remember, we pull pieces of the past out of some mysterious region in the brain – jagged pieces that we sort and shift, arrange and rearrange until they fit into a pattern that makes sense…it is part fact, part fiction, a warped and twisted reconstruction of reality.’ 

Time’s Up – a feminist movement popularized by the overwhelming number of women coming forward and having support from major celebrities, such as Emma Watson, Reese Witherspoon and Meryl Streep – called Loftus’ ‘false memory’ work a ‘tool that has been used to try to discredit survivors of sexual assault for decades.’ 

False memory syndrome has not been ratified by the American Psychological Association and is labeled ‘controversial’ and is ‘not [an] accepted diagnostic term.’  

Loftus has worked on numerous trials, including convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein (pictured), where she failed to convince the jury of his witness Annabella Sciorra’s memory was defective

The psychologist has also helped Ted Bundy (left) and OJ Simpson (right). The defensive in Bundy’s trial used her study on the unreliability of memory between initial and recalled memory of Carol DaRonch, who Bundy attacked in her car while he dressed as a police officer 

Maxwell’s trial is set to start on November 29. She is currently being housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, where she has been for almost 500 days. 

Her family claimed last week that she was experiencing physical abuse at the hands of her guards 

Her brother Ian Maxwell told interviewers that he thinks his sister has experienced ‘physical abuse at the hands of her guards.’ 

‘I don’t see Ghislaine administering a black eye to herself,’ he told Sky News. ‘I think she has suffered some occasional physical abuse at the hands of her guards.’ 

Maxwell (center) is depicted in a courtroom sketch from November 1

He also said his sister’s applications for pre-trial release have been constantly denied, despite her losing 15 pounds and incarceration making it harder for her to prepare a defense.  

‘It’s designed to break her,’ he told Sky News. ‘That is just unjust. It’s a fundamental abuse of human rights. And I find that quite shocking.’ 

She also claimed recently that during a hearing this week, a guard waited until he was alone with her and became ‘verbally threatening’.

The guard allegedly said: ‘You think you are special? You are not special. Remember you are in custody and the judge doesn’t care about you.’

Maxwell’s lawyer claimed that her ‘disturbing’ treatment meant she should be released immediately.

Her multiple applications to be granted bail pre-trial – which has been given to others in high-profile cases, including Weinstein and former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin – has been denied. 

A federal judge cited her citizenship in three countries and immense wealth made as being a flight risk. 

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