Rachel Johnson, sister of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, trended on Twitter after an article she wrote sympathising with Ghislaine Maxwell in November resurfaced.
Writing in British political magazine The Spectator, the Prime Minister’s sister Rachel Johnson wrote a positive piece about her relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell on the 17th of November, shortly before Maxwell’s trial begun.
In a piece titled ‘It’s hard not to pity Ghislaine Maxwell’ which did not actually mention Maxwell until the final paragraph — with Johnson’s initial focus instead being her pet dogs, her mother’s death, and her podcast — she described an intimate encounter between the now-convicted child sex trafficker and her brother.
Johnson said she knew Maxwell when she was at university, describing her as a “shiny glamazon”, and suggested that her brother was at least somewhat familiar with her as well, recounting that the first time she saw Maxwell she had her “high-heeled boot” resting on Boris’ “thigh”.
It is unknown whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson maintained his friendship with Maxwell post-university.
Rachel Johnson also mentioned that she attended an early Maxwell party and appeared to insinuate that other prominent individuals referred to as “fairweather friends” did as well.
“I’m sure fairweather friends would not reveal they went to a Ghislaine Maxwell party: as Barbara Amiel’s brilliant memoir Friends and Enemies proves, you only know who your real chums are when you’re in the gutter,” she wrote, indicating that she counted herself as such a “chum”.
Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein. https://t.co/oiuyWQNUmV
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) December 29, 2021
On the 29th of December, Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, was convicted and found guilty of conspiring to run a sex crimes ring with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced billionaire who allegedly killed himself while on trial for similar charges.
During the trial in New York the court heard how Maxwell acted as Epstein’s right-hand confidante and accomplice, helping Epstein procure underage girls for sexual acts.
Two of the accusers who testified in the court said they were as young as 14 when Maxwell groomed them and forced them into performing sex acts on Epstein. It was also revealed that Maxwell would sometimes participate in the sexual abuse.
Rachel Johnson’s article resurfaced and trended on British Twitter on the 30th of December, a day after Maxwell was convicted by a 12-person jury of five of the six counts she was facing, including the most serious charge of sex trafficking a minor.
Thousands of Twitter users across the board promptly ridiculed Johnson for what they saw as her sympathy for Maxwell in The Spectator.
Veteran British journalist Sonia Poulton lambasted the Johnson family as a whole, tweeting:
“Apple didn’t fall far from the tree with the Johnson clan. Rachel Johnson talked BS & lost her temper in a studio when I said her brother was infamously lazy & took many holidays. She said he worked 7 days a week. As if. Then, of course, there’s her sympathy for the sex trafficker”.
Socialist historian Dr Lousie Raw tweeted: “In November Rachel Johnson wrote a drooling piece about Ghislaine Maxwell’s youthful intimacy with her brother Boris, & defined herself as a ‘REAL chum’ not a ‘fairweather friend’ of the sex offender. The establishment code of (dis)honour- one’s chums shouldn’t go to jail!”
CNN senior producer Luke McGee commented alongside a screenshot of Johnson’s article: “You make the friends you make”.
American actor Michael McKean even weighed in, tweeting: “Surprisingly easy not to pity Rachel Johnson”.
Surprisingly easy not to pity Rachel Johnson. https://t.co/K3I41ccueq
— Michael McKean (@MJMcKean) December 30, 2021
Speaking to Breitbart, Ben Harris-Quinney, Chairman of the UK’s oldest conservative think-tank, the Bow Group, commented on the multiple Spectator articles that appeared to sympathise with Maxwell.
“It is utterly baffling that they have run so many pieces placing a positive spin on Maxwell, the most recent being December 16th this year, one of many pieces defending her written for the Spectator by Maxwell’s own brother. Whilst Ghislaine Maxwell was only found guilty this week, no one was in any doubt as to her guilt,” he suggested.
“The Spectator will perhaps say they are merely trying to provide balance, but is there really a market for that, morally or financially, when it comes to defending the international paedophile elite? Are they going to be running articles on the lighter side of [serial killer] Fred West, his abilities as a carpenter perhaps?”
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