A recent article in the New York Times called for a state-level investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, one of America’s most notorious sex offenders. Epsteins alleged victims are now fighting for justice through lawsuits filed against him and his estate.
Image
A former manager of Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach residence claimed to have seen underage females there. Credit… Associated Press/Wilfredo Lee
Juan Alessi, a former manager of Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach residence, said Thursday during the fourth day of Ms. Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan that Ghislaine Maxwell “managed every element of life within Jeffrey Epstein’s Palm Beach estate.”
Before Ms. Maxwell came, Mr. Alessi, who worked at the estate from 1990 to 2002, testified that he had a “cordial” connection with Mr. Epstein. That relationship, he added, shifted once she arrived in the early 1990s.
Mr. Alessi claimed Ms. Maxwell told him how to speak to Mr. Epstein: “Mr. Epstein doesn’t like to be looked in the eyes,” Ms. Maxwell said. “‘Never look into his eyes; instead, look around the room and respond to him.”
Mr. Alessi said that there was a “tremendous number of directions,” including how to deliver the dishes and prepare the table. There were guidelines for how personnel should dress and approach Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell, as well as visitors.
The home regulations, according to prosecutors, were codified in a 58-page “Household Manual.” Mr. Alessi, who left Mr. Epstein’s company before that edition of the pamphlet was produced, said he recognized the majority of it.
One portion of the brochure said, “Remember that you see nothing, hear nothing, and speak nothing unless to answer a question directly to you.” “Be considerate of their privacy.”
Mr. Alessi interpreted such instructions as a “warning.”
Mr. Alessi recalled seeing two females who seemed to be juvenile, one of whom is now an adult and testified in Ms. Maxwell’s trial under the name “Jane.”
He claimed he first met Jane in 1994 and remembers her visiting the estate with her mother for the first time. Mr. Alessi remarked, “I don’t know how old she was, but she seemed to be young.” “I’d guess 14, 15,” says the author. (Earlier this week, Jane testified that she met Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell when she was 14 years old.)
Mr. Epstein or Ms. Maxwell had asked him to pick Jane up from either school or her home, he said. Jane was a “strikingly attractive girl” who was “quite friendly,” he said. (Earlier last week, Jane testified that she remembers being picked up by a Latin American guy to go see Mr. Epstein; Mr. Alessi is from Ecuador.)
He said that he only observed her engage with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell, but that he did not see any sexual activity between them.
Mr. Alessi said that Mr. Epstein had one massage per day at the beginning of his employment, but that by the time he departed, he was getting three massages per day.
In 2008, Jeffrey Epstein appeared in court in West Palm Beach, Florida. He pled guilty to two state prostitution charges that year and was sentenced to 13 months in prison with considerable work release as part of a plea bargain. Credit… The Palm Beach Post/Uma Sanghvi/Associated Press
Federal authorities had already accused Ghislaine Maxwell’s longstanding boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, with sex trafficking and conspiracy, accusing him of trafficking scores of girls, some as young as 14, and participating in sex acts with them.
Mr. Epstein, on the other hand, was never charged with these crimes in court. On August 10, 2019, 35 days after his arrest, he committed himself in prison. He could have faced up to 45 years in jail if convicted of a conspiracy to sexually exploit vulnerable girls, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors allege that between 2002 and 2005, Mr. Epstein and his workers transported the girls to his Upper East Side house and his Palm Beach residence. Mr. Epstein and others allegedly bribed the girls with gifts and cash, forced them to perform nude massages and sex acts, and sent them out to recruit new females, according to the indictment.
Ms. Maxwell’s attorneys are attempting to depict her trial as an effort to hold her accountable for Mr. Epstein’s misdeeds. Prosecutors, on the other hand, maintained that she was a key figure in the conspiracy that Mr. Epstein was accused of.
Mr. Epstein, a financier and former schoolteacher who befriended wealthy executives, celebrities, and politicians, had been investigated in Florida for sexual abuse of underage girls more than a decade before. He was freed after spending 13 months for state prostitution offenses after striking a secret agreement with prosecutors.
The federal charges were brought in Manhattan in 2019 after a series of stories in The Miami Herald looked into the odd Florida transaction and the claims of sexual assault.
Federal officials seem to have had time since Mr. Epstein’s death to widen the scope of the investigation. Ms. Maxwell, who was arrested in July 2020, has a greater number of charges than Mr. Epstein did, and they go back to 1994. She, too, is charged with sex trafficking of a juvenile. However, although he was charged with one count of conspiracy, she was charged with three, implicating four people.
She is also accused of persuading and transporting a youngster to fly from Florida to New York on many occasions to participate in illicit sex activities.
Ms. Maxwell, 59, could serve at least as much time in jail as Mr. Epstein if convicted.
Jeffrey Epstein’s longterm girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in 2013. Ms. Maxwell is facing federal sex-trafficking allegations in Manhattan. Credit… Getty Images/Laura Cavanaugh
An expert witness in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial told jurors on Thursday morning that adults who sexually abuse children often use a methodical five-step process that includes selecting a victim, using “lies, deception, and manipulation” to set the stage for abuse, and then controlling their victims to carry out the abuse and avoid detection.
This is known as “grooming,” and it is at the heart of the prosecution’s case against Ms. Maxwell, who is on trial in federal court in Manhattan, accused of assisting her longtime lover, Jeffrey Epstein, in abusing children as young as 14 years old.
Ms. Maxwell, according to prosecutors, was a key figure in Mr. Epstein’s abuse, bringing the girls into his world by taking them shopping, posing as a mentor, and educating them on how Mr. Epstein like to be touched.
Lisa Rocchio, an expert witness, seemed to confirm the prosecution’s interpretation of Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein’s behavior. During cross-examination, however, the defense questioned that notion, saying that the activity described by the prosecution as “grooming” may have been harmless.
The decision to call Dr. Rocchio to the stand had been a source of contention between prosecutors and Ms. Maxwell’s defense team, who claimed that her evidence would be inaccurate, irrelevant, and biased.
Alison Nathan, the judge in charge of the case, concluded that Dr. Rocchio’s opinions on grooming would be accepted. However, Judge Nathan agreed with the defense that Dr. Rocchio’s testimony that the presence of a third person, such as Ms. Maxwell, may promote grooming should be suppressed. Dr. Rocchio did not bring up that point during his testimony on Thursday.
Dr. Rocchio has not spoken with any of the four women whose evidence is likely to be the foundation for Ms. Maxwell’s prosecution. Instead, she testified in court that her evidence was based on her 30 years as a professional psychologist, during which she treated hundreds of individuals who had been sexually molested as children.
Dr. Rocchio told jurors that “childhood sexual abuse is a process that starts with the selection and identification of a victim.”
Abusers strive to get “access” to their victims by isolating them, then use lies and manipulation to “establish trust and connection” with them.
Abusers usually aim to desensitize youngsters by acclimating them to physical contact, according to Dr. Rocchio. Physical closeness, such as sitting near to a youngster, is commonly associated with this stage of the process. Abusers then try to “normalize” sexual behavior by talking about it, making sexual jokes, and giving massages.
“All of it leads to sexual assault,” Dr. Rocchio stated.
The procedure she recounted looked to be very similar to what Lara Pomerantz, a prosecutor, described to jurors in her opening statement. Mr. Epstein touched the girls sexually and directed them to massage him while he masturbated, among other sexual acts, according to Ms. Pomerantz. The sexual abuse claimed in the case “began with Epstein laying facedown for so-called massages” and increased, she said.
On Thursday, when it was the defense’s chance to question Dr. Rocchio, one of Ms. Maxwell’s attorneys tried to back up a claim made during the defense’s opening statement. “What we have here is authorized action that is going to be branded grooming,” a defense lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, said to jurors as part of her presentation. Prosecutors, she said, were labeling normally harmless behavior such as “asking someone what they want to do, if they enjoy a movie, whether they like going shopping.”
During Dr. Rocchio’s cross-examination on Thursday, another defense lawyer, Jeffrey S. Pagliuca, asked: “Can these grooming behaviors also be non-grooming behaviors?”
That might be the case, according to Dr. Rocchio. However, she went on to say that whether or not a specific conduct constituted grooming had a lot to do with the adult’s motives.
On Tuesday, the second day of Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial, a queue formed outside the Thurgood Marshall U.S. Courthouse in Manhattan at 5:00 a.m. Credit… The New York Times’ Dave Sanders
Grooming isn’t a legal crime, but it’s at the heart of Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking charges: the words “grooming,” “groom,” and “groomed” occur nine times in the federal indictment accusing her of plotting to sexually abuse young girls with her longtime lover, Jeffrey Epstein.
Grooming, according to legal experts, is a prolonged process in which an abuser earns a prospective victim’s confidence and cooperation by interactions that seem regular and innocuous, such as paying extra attention or delivering praises and presents.
The abuser then gradually exposes the victim to physical contact and sexual allusions, eroding normal boundaries. To desensitize the victim, the predator gradually introduces them to sexual acts such as gentle caressing. When the activities develop to sexual abuse or assault, the process is designed to break down resistance and make the victim feel involved or responsible, making the victim less likely to notice or report the abuse.
In September, after accusing Robert A. Hadden, a former Manhattan gynecologist, with sexual assault of six female patients, including one juvenile, William F. Sweeney Jr., the chief of the F.B.I.’s New York office, stated, “A predator grooms his victims in order to acquire their confidence.”
Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar have both been accused of grooming their victims in order to induce sexual actions without resorting to violence: Dr. Nassar indicated to teenage gymnasts that his attacks were part of normal inspections, while Mr. Weinstein dangled prospects of becoming a Hollywood star.
Grooming in sexual abuse situations is merely the term’s most recent use, giving it a dark, deceitful connotation for a word whose ordinary meaning is caring for one’s personal appearance or cleanliness.
Grooms were male employees who assisted their bosses with dressing and everyday tasks in the 13th century. By the 1600s, the term had come to imply a horse-care worker. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “grooming” was first used in 1887 to refer to the process of grooming someone, as in “grooming a successor.”
In 1985, the Chicago Tribune used the word for the first time in a sexual abuse context, describing “pleasant molesters” who won trust while “secretly grooming the youngster as a sexual partner.”
With high-profile incidents of Catholic priests approaching vulnerable families as helpers or mentors before sexually assaulting children, and with the surge of #MeToo claims of sexual assault, harassment, and abuse in the workplace, this usage of the phrase has grown increasingly popular in recent years.
Brad Edwards, a lawyer who is alleged to be representing Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, has left the federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan where Ghislaine Maxwell is being tried. Credit… The New York Times’ Dave Sanders
The first complainant to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial was bawling into a bundle of tissues towards the conclusion of her testimony on Wednesday.
During several hours of cross-examination of the witness, identified only as “Jane,” a defense attorney for Ms. Maxwell asked questions aimed at casting doubt on the story Jane had told the day before: of a troubled family and financial situation that made her vulnerable to abuse by notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Maxwell, who is accused of luring teenage girls for Mr. Epstein to abuse.
Jane is now a professional actor, and Ms. Maxwell’s lawyer, Laura Menninger, seemed to imply that Jane’s testimony was simply another play, and that she was driven by money.
When Jane was questioned again later by Alison Moe, a federal prosecutor, Ms. Moe asked her what it meant to be granted $5 million from a fund established to recompense victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual exploitation.
Jane cried as she remarked, “I wish I had never gotten that money in the first place.” “Hopefully, this will be the end of it and I will be able to go on with my life,” she continued.
Ms. Maxwell’s trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan started on Monday, and three more accusers are slated to testify against her. Ms. Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s longtime partner, was arrested in 2020, a year after Mr. Epstein committed himself in a Manhattan detention cell. He’d also been accused of smuggling women.
The following are some key points from the third day of the trial:
Jane, according to the defense, hailed from a wealthy and loving family.
Ms. Menninger started her cross-examination by asking about Jane’s applications to Interlochen summer camp in Michigan. Jane and her two brothers, who also attended the camp, came from “a strong, loving family background,” according to a recommendation, and they symbolized the “rebirth of the von Trapp family” from “The Sound of Music.”
Jane and her siblings never asked for financial assistance or scholarships for the three years they attended, according to Ms. Menninger, despite the fact that the cost of the camp was over $4,000 per kid for the summer. Jane said that she was unfamiliar with the paper but recognized her signature and assumed it was her application.
Jane’s testimony of Ghislaine Maxwell’s participation in her maltreatment was questioned by the defense.
Jane informed federal investigators in 2019 and 2020 about the sexual assault she claimed she suffered at the hands of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell, and Ms. Menninger used her cross-examination to concentrate on that. Ms. Menninger hinted that the recounts were not the same as the ones she spoke about on Tuesday.
“Do you recall that Ghislaine contacted your house two years ago to schedule appointments?” Jane was questioned by Ms. Menninger on Wednesday.
Jane said, “Right.”
“Has that recollection surfaced in the last two years?” Ms. Menninger was adamant.
Jane said, “Memory is not linear.”
Jane’s testimony, according to the defense, was merely another act.
Ms. Menninger questioned Jane, who works as an actor on a soap opera, two questions during her cross-examination: Is an actor “someone who takes lines from a writer” and “someone who performs the part of a fictitious character” the same thing?
“Yes,” Jane said to both of them.
Ms. Menninger wondered whether soap opera characters had “tangled interpersonal ties” and reacted in a “melodramatic and emotional” manner. Jane was asked whether she has portrayed a protective mother, a prostitute, a car accident victim, and someone followed by serial murderers, among other roles.
When questioned about her part as a prostitute, Jane said yes, but added, “Not my favorite story line.”
The prosecution questioned Jane whether she understood the difference between acting and testifying in court when it came time for the government’s last series of questions.
“Acting on television is not real,” Jane said, “but testifying in court is genuine and true.” She said that she was not on the stand as a witness.
Jane informed him about part of the abuse, according to a previous lover.
Jane’s ex-boyfriend, identified only as “Matt,” said that Jane told him she had a “godfather, an uncle, a family friend-type guy that helped her mom pay the expenses,” but that she never told him how she got the money. Matt told the jury on Wednesday that she just said, “It wasn’t free.”
Jane informed Matt that Mr. Epstein had an adult female companion who “made her feel comfortable” when she was a teenager spending time with the financier — but she didn’t identify Ms. Maxwell by name. Jane admitted she was the lady until after Ms. Maxwell’s arrest in 2020, he claimed.
Colin Moynihan contributed to the story as a reporter.
According to records, Jeffrey Epstein attempted to persuade prison authorities that he was not suicidal before hanging himself in his cell in 2019. Credit… Reuters
Jeffrey Epstein shadows large over practically every element of his former partner Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking prosecution, but his suicide in a federal detention cell in Manhattan ended any chance of hearing the evidence against him at trial.
While awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking allegations, Mr. Epstein was discovered dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correction Center at 6:30 a.m. on 10th of August, 2019. He hung himself with a bedsheet on a night when he was alone after his cellmate was relocated, according to the medical examiner in New York City.
His death in Manhattan sparked a flurry of unsubstantiated conspiracy rumors on social media, which were taken up and perpetuated by prominent personalities like as Mayor Bill de Blasio and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani. But, according to the Attorney General at the time, William P. Barr, investigations by the FBI and the Justice Department’s Inspector General found no evidence of a plot, showing Mr. Epstein’s death was a suicide.
It wasn’t the first time he’d attempted suicide. Mr. Epstein was discovered comatose in his jail cell with bruises on his neck a month earlier, after being refused bail on federal sex trafficking accusations. Prison authorities suspected a suicide attempt.
Thousands of papers from a legal complaint were unsealed the morning before he died, including graphic claims accusing Mr. Epstein of sexually assaulting a number of young women.
The suicide was investigated and it was discovered that prison personnel had made severe errors. The two guards in the protected housing unit were meant to inspect Mr. Epstein every 30 minutes, but that process was not followed that night. One of the guards wasn’t a fully qualified corrections officer.
Mr. Epstein was also meant to have had another prisoner in his cell because of his previous attempted suicide, according to authorities. But, according to the two authorities, the prison had lately relocated his cellmate and authorized Mr. Epstein to be housed alone, a decision that apparently went against the facility’s regulations.
Mr. Barr said he was “appalled” by Mr. Epstein’s suicide two days after he died and slammed the jail’s administration. He demanded a thorough probe. The warden had to be relocated.
Michael Thomas and Tova Noel, the two guards, were charged criminally with failing to do their duty and then lying about it. The guards were allegedly surfing the internet and dozing instead of checking on Mr. Epstein every half-hour as they were supposed to the night he died, according to prosecutors. They were also suspected of fabricating official records in which they claimed to have completed their rounds. They struck an arrangement with prosecutors in May to escape prosecution in exchange for community service.
Mr. Epstein went to great lengths to persuade jail officials that he was not suicidal after the first apparent attempt to hang himself in July 2019, according to a trove of more than 2,000 pages of Federal Bureau of Prisons records obtained by The New York Times after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
The notes and reports prepared by those who dealt with Mr. Epstein throughout his 36 days in custody reveal how he continually convinced them that he had a lot to live for, while simultaneously implying that he was depressed. Even while he waited on suicide watch after the first attempt, Jeffrey Epstein insisted he was having a “great life,” dismissing any intentions of ending it.
Mr. Epstein told a jailhouse psychologist, “I have no interest in murdering myself.” He said that he was a “coward” who disliked suffering. “I would never do such a thing to myself.”
— McKinley, James C. Jr.
A scene from Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial in Wisconsin’s Kenosha County Circuit Court on Nov. 17. That trial was shown on television. Credit… Reuters pool photo
On television and computer screens throughout the nation in recent weeks, two dramatic cases with broad societal ramifications have unfolded.
Untold numbers of people were able to see Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial and acquittal after he murdered two people at a rally in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in response to a police killing. A similar-sized crowd saw the trial and conviction of three white men in Georgia for the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black jogger. Previously, such access would have necessitated taking a seat in a courtroom.
Why, therefore, is Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial not as open to the public? The difference in jurisdictions — federal court in Ms. Maxwell’s case, and county courts in the other two — is the solution.
Federal procedures are governed by unique, often esoteric regulations. Although the federal court has experimented with pilot projects permitting cameras in civil proceedings, Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure has prohibited the broadcast of criminal hearings since 1946.
Some state and county courts, on the other hand, have had the freedom to enable trial broadcasts for decades. For example, the Los Angeles County Superior Court allowed the trial of Erik and Lyle Menendez, brothers who killed their parents with shotguns but claimed they did it in self-defense after years of sexual and psychological abuse, to be televised on Court TV in 1993.
Some viewers developed a cult-like following as a result of vivid scenes with crying defendants and intense cross-examinations. Soon after, O.J. Simpson’s murder trial was broadcast live from Los Angeles County on Court TV and the E Channel. Those events, too, attracted enthusiastic crowds.
The televised trials, however, were not without their detractors, who said that the national audience pushed attorneys, judges, and witnesses to overstate their cases.
The initial effort to charge the Menendez brothers failed due to a lack of consensus among jurors. Because the judge in charge of the case, Stanley M. Weisberg, believed that the television coverage had influenced many potential jurors for the retrial, he barred electronic coverage of the second trial to “protect the parties’ rights, the court’s dignity, and ensure the orderly conduct of the proceedings.”
The United States Judicial Conference, which determines policy for federal courts, rejected a proposed modification to Rule 53 in 1994 that would have permitted cameras to be used in criminal hearings. A similar proposal to enable the recording and transmission of civil processes was also rejected, with the conference determining that “the intimidating impact of cameras on certain witnesses and jurors constituted reason for worry.”
When decisions are appealed, those who wish to keep track of legal procedures in federal cases in New York may have an easier time. The Second Circuit, which handles appeals from New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, provides a web portal where you may listen to oral arguments “livestream audio.” Those who tune in will not be able to see what is going on inside the courtroom, but they will be able to hear what is being said.
Demonstrators gather outside federal court in Manhattan in July for Ghislaine Maxwell’s video bond hearing. Credit: Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press
The sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former lover and longterm collaborator, is due to start on Monday. The following are some of the events that lead up to the much-anticipated trial:
7th of July, 2019
Mr. Epstein was apprehended in Teterboro, New Jersey.
Mr. Epstein was charged by federal authorities of participating in unlawful sex activities with kids and women as young as 14.
Aug. 10, 2019
In his Manhattan detention cell, Mr. Epstein committed himself.
Mr. Epstein committed himself in his Metropolitan Correctional Center detention cell; he was not on suicide watch at the time. On federal sex trafficking allegations, he had just been refused bail.
The deadline is March 2020.
Ms. Maxwell filed a lawsuit against Mr. Epstein’s estate.
Mr. Epstein and Darren Indyke, Mr. Epstein’s longtime lawyer and the executor of his estate, both pledged to pay Ms. Maxwell’s legal bills, according to the complaint, but she claims they haven’t. As other women alleged she assisted Mr. Epstein in recruiting them for sexual activities while they were under the age of 18, her legal expenses grew.
July 2020
Ms. Maxwell was apprehended in the state of New Hampshire.
Ms. Maxwell allegedly recruited three underage victims for unlawful sexual behavior between 1994 and 1997, according to the indictment.
July 2020
Ms. Maxwell has requested a bail of $5 million.
Her attorneys urged a federal court in Manhattan to set a $5 million bail for her release. Prosecutors stated that Ms. Maxwell presented a significant danger of escaping before her trial, therefore Judge Alison J. Nathan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan dismissed the motion.
In December of 2020,
Ms. Maxwell describes prison as “oppressive.”
Ms. Maxwell requested her release once again, this time on a $28.5 million bail, claiming that her Brooklyn prison circumstances were “oppressive.” Prosecutors stated the chances of her fleeing were exceedingly high, thus the request was refused once again. Prosecutors also claimed that her detention circumstances were fair, citing her own shower, phone, and two laptops as examples.
March of the year 2021
Ms. Maxwell is accused of trafficking a 14-year-old girl.
Ms. Maxwell is now accused of grooming a second juvenile, according to a new indictment. She’s accused of sex trafficking a 14-year-old girl who had sexual encounters with Mr. Epstein at his Palm Beach, Fla., mansion.
2021 (November)
Ms. Maxwell will be put on trial.
The date for the first day of arguments has been scheduled for Monday.
In July 2020, Audrey Strauss, the acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the accusations against Ghislaine Maxwell. Credit… Getty Images/Jonathan Eisele/Agence France-Presse
In her federal trial, Ghislaine Maxwell is charged with six counts of facilitating the sexual exploitation of minors for her longtime partner, infamous millionaire and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
The six charges are based on four accusers’ testimony. The following are the charges:
-
Ms. Maxwell is accused of coercing one girl — known as Minor Victim 1 in charge papers — to travel from Florida to New York between 1994 and 1997 to participate in sex activities with Mr. Epstein on one count of solicitation of a minor to travel to engage in criminal sex acts.
-
Ms. Maxwell is accused of transporting the same girl from Florida to New York on many times, according to one allegation of transportation of a child with intent to engage in illicit sex acts.
-
Ms. Maxwell is charged with one count of sex trafficking of a child, alleging that between 2001 and 2004, she recruited, lured, and transported another girl, designated as Minor Victim 4, to participate in at least one commercial sex act with Mr. Epstein.
-
There are another three conspiracy charges, which are linked to the other counts. The indictment’s conspiracy charges are more extensive, encompassing all four accused as well as residences in the United States and London. These allegations allege that Ms. Maxwell collaborated with Mr. Epstein to recruit minor females for sex activities, such as persuading one to massage Mr. Epstein in London between 1994 and 1995.
If found guilty, Ms. Maxwell, 59, may face a significant jail sentence. Conspiracy to conduct underage sex trafficking has a potential penalty of 40 years; the other offenses have maximum sentences of five or ten years.
Ms. Maxwell was charged with two counts of perjury when she was arrested in July 2020, accusing her of lying under oath in 2016 during depositions for a case involving Mr. Epstein. Judge Alison J. Nathan allowed the defense plea to sever the perjury charges, which will be tried separately, in April.
Rebecca Davis O’Brien (Rebecca Davis O’Brien)
