The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell begins today in New York. She has been awaiting trial for over a year on charges of sex trafficking. She is facing 80 years in prison if she is found guilty. She pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges.

The 59-year-old Maxwell has a husband, as it turns out, and even her siblings were surprised to learn of that. It’s an odd twist of events, given her siblings describe their relationship as a family as very close. The husband, Scott Borgerson, 45. surfaced recently in public for the first time in over a year. He was spotted in Manchester-by-the-Sea. Will he show up in New York to support his wife? He is reported to be a tech CEO. He, along with Ghislaine’s siblings (three sisters, three brothers) put together her $28.5 million bail package when she was arrested in July 2020. At that time, the siblings learned that the two were secretly married in 2016. Prior to their marriage, the couple dated for seven years. The Daily Mail, though, has been unable to find any record of the marriage or of a divorce in their names in the town or county where they were living. Borgerson, a tech millionaire, has two children to which Ghislaine played step-mom.

“It’s the first time we knew they were married, when we heard the word ‘spouse’ mentioned in the bail hearing,” Ian Maxwell, Ghislaine’s brother, told The Post of Scott Borgerson, 45.

Ghislaine, now 59, secretly wed the tech millionaire in 2016, Ian said, adding that the couple maintained “the most private of lives to protect their young children. She did not want to submit her family to the publicity.

Maxwell’s defense is reported to be one that paints her as a victim. The strategy is to question the credibility of the four young women who say she groomed them as teenagers for abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile. The defense will argue that the women have faulty memories, that they are motivated by financial incentives to lie or exaggerate their stories.

Lawyers for Maxwell say they plan to call American psychologist Elizabeth Loftus to testify about ‘false memories.’

Last week a judge ruled that the administrators of Epstein’s victims’ compensation fund must provide records of claims made by women who accuse Ghislaine Maxwell of playing a role in their having been sexually abused.

US District Judge Alison Nathan rejected requests by the fund’s administrators and by federal prosecutors to quash the subpoena for the records by Maxwell’s lawyers.

Nathan will review the materials Maxwell wants to see before deciding which can be turned over.

The defense have said four accusers expected to testify against her have made claims to the fund, which paid out more than $121million to about 138 people.

Maxwell’s siblings are all working actively on her behalf, despite the heinous crimes involved in the case. Her brother Ian is the family spokesman.

A London-based businessman and the family’s acting spokesperson, Ian is handling media inquiries. Sisters Isabel and Christine, 71-year-old twins and tech entrepreneurs, act as archivists and researchers — and offer technical support with RealGhislaine.com, a clearinghouse for press coverage and other information about their sister. The other siblings — Philip, Anne and Kevin — contribute with legal strategy and moral support, according to Ian.

A petition has been submitted to the United Nations Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva. The family objects to Maxwell’s treatment as a prisoner at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. They say she was treated “worse than a terrorist on death row” and held in “pretty medieval conditions”. Ian said that she is deprived of sleep by guards shining a light in her eyes every 15 minutes at night. Also, she is body searched seven times a day and she appears in court in shackles.

The family celebrated a coup on Monday, when leading human rights attorney Francois Zimeray submitted a petition on their behalf to the United Nations Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva. It calls for the US to release Ghislaine “without delay” and demands an investigation into her “arbitrary detention” and the “violation of her rights.”

“The UN petition shines a powerful light on these practices that have a misogynistic element,” said Ian, adding that convicted criminals Harvey Weinstein, Bernie Madoff and John Gotti received better pre-trial conditions and only had to put up a fraction of what his sister had to put up as a bond to make bail.

Her brother said since the prosecutors lost Epstein, they are now “taking it out on Ghislaine. In some respects she is paying the price for Epstein.” That’s going to be a hard sell for her defense team. There is nothing but disgust felt for his sister and her life with Epstein. The siblings say they all met Epstein, except one of the sisters, but they had no idea of what was going on.

Here’s another interesting twist – Ian hopes Ghislaine is “exonerated” so that she can help clear Prince Andrew’s name.

Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari today, Mr Maxwell was also asked if he had ever discussed his sister’s friendship with the Queen’s son. He replied: ‘I met Prince Andrew at my sister’s home on a couple of occasions, so I didn’t really need to talk to her about it.

‘I knew they were friends, and he’s found himself in this terrible position where he’s effectively been ”cancelled” as a member of the Royal Family, I think on very dubious grounds.

‘So I hope that clearly my sister will be exonerated at the end of her trial and that that will in some way assist Prince Andrew clear his own name from the charges that he too is facing – although those are civil charges – from a very vocal accuser of both of them – who, I might add, is not testifying at the trial, which tells you all you need to know about her credibility.’

Wow. Everyone is a victim except the actual victims in this case – the young women who were teenagers at the time of their abuse. Virginia Giuffre, who filed a civil lawsuit against Randy Andy, will not be testifying in Maxwell’s trial. Her lawyers suggest she isn’t a part of the case because she was 17 at the time and that is over the age of consent in some locations where her alleged abuse took place. She’s given media interviews and depositions. She plans to hold “off-the-record” remote briefings for reporters throughout the trial from her home in Australia.

The trial is expected to last until mid-January. Opening statements will be presented today.