Maxwell’s attorneys tried to replace her image of a privileged socialite with one of being a kind and generous employer
When Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense case started last Thursday, her team tried pulling off a near-impossible task – making the British socialite accused of sex trafficking seem likable.
Indeed, the first defense witness in Maxwell’s Manhattan federal court sex-trafficking trial, former assistant Cimberly Espinosa, described her ex-boss in glowing terms.
Continue reading...The former socialite had nothing to say after the prosecution in her New York trial dispensed quickly with defence witnesses
Defending a client charged with crimes modern society finds more terrible than murder, who might face the rest of her life in prison, Ghislaine Maxwell’s defence in New York opened with a nice lady who hadn’t seen anything, a travel agent who booked flights years after they mattered and a professor of BugsBunnyology – and none of them cut the mustard.
At the end of the defence’s first day, Maxwell was seen holding her hands up in despair at her fancy attorneys who have cost her, according to her own estimate, some $7m. Juries in US federal trials must be unanimous and there are legal grounds for knocking out some of the charges, but it looks bleak for Maxwell.
Continue reading...Maxwell’s defense team rested their case on Friday, with closing arguments set to begin on Monday
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers called one of Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriends as a defense witness on Friday in the British socialite’s Manhattan federal court sex-trafficking trial.
Maxwell’s defense team also rested their case on Friday afternoon and she declined to testify. Her trial will enter a new stage Monday when the prosecution and defense will present their closing arguments.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732).
Continue reading...Legal team make unusual request, saying witnesses might be leery of testifying unless allowed to give evidence under pseudonyms
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers have taken the unusual step of asking the judge to allow several defense witnesses to testify anonymously in her sex-trafficking trial, which resumes on Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
Maxwell’s legal team has said that some witnesses might be so leery of testifying that they might not take the stand unless allowed to give evidence under pseudonyms.
Continue reading...For Jane Rosenberg, a professional courtroom artist who has covered four decades of notorious trials, her viral sketch of Maxwell is just part of a strange and fascinating job
Pastel drawings don’t typically go viral on the internet. But this month, thousands of Twitter users were mesmerized by a courtroom artist’s sketch of Ghislaine Maxwell – the alleged sex-trafficking accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein – staring at the artist and sketching back.
Twitter users were disturbed. “I thought this was funny at first but it’s starting to haunt me,” one person wrote. Others commented on the picture’s bizarre, recursive quality – reminiscent of MC Escher’s drawing of hands drawing hands, and raising the possibility of some kind of infinite loop. Was Maxwell trolling us? Or sending the artist an ominous message?
Continue reading...Lawyer says secret 2008 agreement between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein protects prince from lawsuit
A secret 2008 settlement that a lawyer for Britain’s Prince Andrew says would protect him against a lawsuit claiming he sexually abused an American when she was 17 should be made public, a judge said on Tuesday.
The agreement was reached between Virginia Giuffre and Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while awaiting a sex trafficking trial in New York City.
Continue reading...Justice at work is difficult to watch when big-money lawyers go in hard as they try to discredit witnesses
The slut-shaming – or something very much like it – of the four key witnesses against Ghislaine Maxwell and her late lover, Jeffrey Epstein is, almost, a thing of beauty, a dark wonder to behold. You’ve got to admire the way Maxwell’s multimillion-dollar attorneys break her accusers on the rack of their own human frailty. No one dare call it torture: we’re watching justice at work, the Ghislaine Maxwell defence team way.
In order of appearance witness “Jane” was challenged as a drug user from a wealthy but deeply unhappy home; witness “Kate” was a drug user with a troubled mother; witness Carolyn – to give her some privacy the court accepted her request to use only her real first name – had a single parent mother who was an alcoholic and a drug addict, who became an alcoholic and a drug addict herself, who left school when she was 14, who did not, said her ex-boyfriend Shawn “have the reading ability” to say Ms Maxwell’s first name, Ghislaine. So Carolyn called her Maxwell. Witness Annie Farmer – her full real name, was 16, the child of a divorced single mum but not herself broken, not at all.
Continue reading...Federal sex-trafficking trial has shed more light on pair’s ties, and how their lives seemed intimately interwoven
Ghislaine Maxwell has long been accused of luring teenage girls into Jeffrey Epstein’s orbit for him to sexually abuse, but whatever motive for allegedly doing so has long remained a mystery.
The answer hinges somewhat on the nature of their relationship. Did Maxwell serve as the late financier’s consigliere, or act as his girlfriend and procurer?
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...Annie Farmer testifies about encounter at New Mexico ranch in 1996, and recounts how she met Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein
The fourth accuser to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial said Friday that she was only 16 when the British socialite gave her a nude massage at Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch.
This accuser, Annie Farmer, also said that the morning after her encounter with Maxwell, Epstein climbed into bed with her and said he “wanted to cuddle” and she “felt kind of frozen”.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...Judge Alison Nathan says she expects proceedings will resume on Friday
Ghislaine Maxwell’s New York sex-trafficking trial was unexpectedly adjourned early Thursday because an “ill” attorney needed medical care. “I’ve been informed there’s an attorney in the case who’s ill, and that attorney has to get care,” the judge, Alison Nathan, told jurors this morning.
Nathan’s disclosure came several moments after attorneys on the case asked to speak with her in private. It’s unclear from proceedings which attorney is ill.
Continue reading...‘Shawn’ says he drove Carolyn to Epstein’s house every few weeks, after she testified Maxwell scheduled sexualized massages with Epstein
The former boyfriend of the third accuser to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial in New York corroborated details of her account during his testimony Wednesday.
This accuser, Carolyn, had testified Tuesday that Maxwell scheduled sexualized massages with Jeffrey Epstein starting when Carloyn was 14, and that Maxwell groped her. Carolyn said that she had told Maxwell about having been sexually abused as a child.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...‘Carolyn’ testifies that Maxwell coordinated sexualized massages with Jeffrey Epstein, starting when she was 14
Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday introduced a witness who was once the kind of minor teen on whom the Briton is alleged to have preyed.
At 14, Carolyn was vulnerable. She had an alcoholic mother and a 17-year-old boyfriend and had been raped and molested by her grandfather from the age of four. She needed money.
Continue reading...Analysis: The task of Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense may be to tangle her so deeply in Epstein’s shadow that they cannot find her guilty
The graphic testimony presented to jurors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal sex abuse trial last week seemed at times to mesh and then detach from broader theories – criminal, conspiratorial or both – about the nature of Jeffrey Epstein’s world.
Whether prosecutors and defense attorneys are successful in separating criminal conspiracy from the conspiracy theories that run through the entire Epstein-Maxwell narrative may determine how the criminal complaint against the 59-year-old former British socialite is ultimately resolved.
Continue reading...Prosecution and defense argue about several photographs that might be presented at sex-trafficking trial in New York
Ghislaine Maxwell’s child-sex trafficking trial took a shocking turn Friday when prosecutors brought one of Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous massage tables into the courtroom.
By bringing this green, folding table into the courtroom, and then expanding it, prosecutors are working to bolster allegations that Epstein and Maxwell sexually abused teen girls under the pretext of giving him a massage.
Continue reading...‘Jane’, who did not accuse Trump or duke of misconduct, testifies in court she was introduced to former president by Jeffrey Epstein
The first accuser in Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex trafficking trial testified on Wednesday that Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump when she was 14. This accuser also claimed that she was on a flight with Prince Andrew.
She did not accuse Trump or the Duke of York of any misconduct. The accuser, who used the pseudonym “Jane” in court, said this as she was undergoing cross-examination from one of Maxwell’s attorneys.
Continue reading...Witness identified as ‘Jane’ alleges Epstein began sexual abuse when she was 14 and says Maxwell was sometimes in the room
The first accuser in Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex trafficking trial testified in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday that she was just 14 when the British socialite allegedly lured her into Jeffrey Epstein’s abusive orbit.
This accuser, who used the name “Jane” in court, alleged that Maxwell was sometimes present when this abuse occurred and participated on some occasions.
Continue reading...Each morning draws a crowd of onlookers as Maxwell’s own movements remain a mystery
Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial in New York is an early morning affair, reporters, court artists, protesters and onlookers gathering as early as 6am each day to get in the courthouse or, in some cases, simply to get their message out.
When the doors of the court open at 9am – and at lunch and 4pm – a line of black SUVs ferries well-turned parties in and out, a reminder, perhaps, that in some eyes at least this is about a public display of accountability for the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein as well as Maxwell’s trial on a set of criminal charges.
Continue reading...Maxwell ‘was involved in every detail of Epstein’s life’, federal prosecutors say in opening arguments
In Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex-trafficking trial, Manhattan federal prosecutors shared a simple, chilling message with jurors in their opening statement: “She knew what was going to happen to those girls.”
Maxwell “preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them and served them up to be sexually abused” by Jeffrey Epstein, said prosecutor Lara Pomerantz. “The defendant was trafficking kids for sex.
Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 802 9999. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
Continue reading...British socialite faces six counts alleging that she helped recruit and groom teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse
Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial is scheduled to start in earnest in federal court in Manhattan on Monday with opening statements about the eagerly awaited case.
The first arguments will set the stage for a six-week trial in which the British socialite’s alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes will be aired in grueling detail, outlining how prosecutors and defense attorneys will approach the proceedings.
Continue reading...British socialite is accused of grooming girls as young as 14 to have sex with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein
Before opening arguments in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial for allegedly aiding the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls, the Briton’s brother protested over what he called “the most over-hyped trial of the century”.
A family member would be in court at all times from Monday to show support, Ian Maxwell told the Associated Press. A woman who identified herself to court staff as a family member has attended all recent proceedings.
Continue reading...