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re: EPSTEINs SECRET Deal With Victim & Prince Andrew May Lose Royal Title
Ghislaine Maxwell Trial Jurors Begin Deliberations
A New York City jury has begun deliberations in the sex trafficking and perjury trial of Ghislaine Maxwell following weeks of testimony.
BBC News 21 DEC 2021.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein
Ms Maxwell, 59, has denied grooming underage girls for abuse by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prosecutors called her a "sophisticated predator", while her lawyers alleged "sensationalism" in their final statements to jurors.
Ms Maxwell faces up to 80 years in prison if convicted.
The jury withdrew for an hour of deliberations on Monday evening and will return on Tuesday to continue considering their verdict.
Judge Alison Nathan had said over the weekend that jurors would be instructed that they may choose to convict Ms Maxwell if they conclude she either ignored or "consciously avoided" knowledge of Epstein's underage sexual encounters.
Defence attorneys maintain she is the government's scapegoat for crimes committed by Epstein, her former boyfriend and business associate.
Her lawyers criticised the judge's move as a "backup option" in case the jury does not find Ms Maxwell was an active participant.
Epstein was found dead in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Ms Maxwell, a socialite and daughter of a late British media tycoon, has been held in a US jail without the chance of bail since her arrest in July 2020.
The charges against her cover a period between 1994 and 2004.
What did prosecutors say?
Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe alleged Ms Maxwell was "key to the whole operation" in a New York City court on Monday.
"Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous. She was a grown woman who preyed on vulnerable kids," she said. "It is time to hold her accountable."
Ms Moe added it was "not an accident" that the alleged victims largely came from troubled backgrounds and had similar accounts of their abuse.
"It happened again and again and again. It is powerful evidence of Maxwell's guilt."
In a rebuttal to the defence's closing arguments, prosecutor Maurene Comey said "there is not a shred of evidence that a group of lawyers got together and made up a story about Maxwell".
Ms Comey also brought up a recently disclosed $30m (£23m) money transfer from Epstein to Ms Maxwell, telling jurors it was "'we molested kids together' money".
Earlier this month, prosecutors called two dozen witnesses over 10 days as they built a narrative of Ms Maxwell as a predator who built a "pyramid scheme of abuse" with Epstein.
Four accusers took the stand. They alleged Ms Maxwell often set up, demonstrated and even took part in the massages that turned into sexual acts with Epstein.
The government also released reams of previously unseen photographs, flight logs and documents intended to link the duo as "partners in crime".
What did the defence say?
In her closing argument, lead defence counsel Laura Menninger again distanced her client from Epstein, saying: "I am not here to defend Jeffrey Epstein. He is not my client."
Ms Menninger argued Ms Maxwell had "no motive" for the alleged crimes because it made little sense that "a happy, educated women in her 30s would end her career as a facilitator of sex abuse".
"Ghislaine is being tried here for being with Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe it was the biggest mistake of her life, but it is not a crime," she said.
She accused prosecutors of cherry-picking evidence "like a sensational tabloid", claiming they had not shown jurors as many as 37,000 relevant photographs.
Listing off specific inconsistencies in the testimony of accusers, she argued witnesses inserted the defendant into their stories after the fact because "their memories have been manipulated in aid of money".
On Friday, Ms Maxwell declined to take the stand in her own defence, telling the judge the claims against her were unproven.
Her lawyers called nine witnesses over two days of testimony last week, including a cognitive psychologist who testified that people may reconstruct "false memories" of traumatic events.
Key Moments So Far in Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
The defence team at Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial has finished presenting its case, with closing statements on Monday.
What are the trial's key moments so far?
A photo of Ms Maxwell rubbing Epstein's feet aboard his private plane was shown to jurors...
The 59-year-old defendant, the daughter of a late British media tycoon, is accused of grooming teenage girls for abuse by the late Jeffrey Epstein.
She has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which cover a period from 1994 to 2004.
The first fortnight of the trial heard emotional testimony from some of the alleged victims of Epstein and Ms Maxwell.
But this week her lawyers argued those testimonies were impacted by "[lapses in] memory, manipulation and money".
They also alleged the government needed a scapegoat for the crimes of Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019.
Here are some key elements from the last three weeks.
'False memory' expert on the stand
University of California psychology professor Elizabeth Loftus, the defence's star witness, told the jury that people can have "false memories" of traumatic events.
"[Memory] doesn't work like a recording device," she said. "We are actually constructing our memories while we retrieve memories."
Media coverage can act as "a source of post-event suggestion" and those who recall memories "frequently remember ourselves in a better light than perhaps is accurate", said Dr Loftus.
Ms Maxwell's lawyers also brought in two FBI agents in an effort to show discrepancies between recent testimony by Ms Maxwell's accusers and their past statements to law enforcement.
'I looked up to her'
"I highly respected Ghislaine," said her executive assistant Cimberly Espinosa, who served her from 1996 to 2003. "I looked up to her very much."
She said she booked professional massages for both Epstein and Ms Maxwell, and testified that she never saw any child abuse take place.
Epstein's former girlfriend of eight years, Eva Andersson-Dubin - a former physician and Miss Sweden winner - also took the stand on Ms Maxwell's behalf.
The New York socialite and her hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin were named in the 2016 deposition of Virginia Giuffre, the most vocal Epstein accuser.
On the stand she denied having group sex with an underage accuser, but admitted to having memory problems.
Eva Andersson-Dubin said she had dated Jeffrey Epstein from 1983 to 1991
Maxwell 'preyed on vulnerable young girls'
In her opening statement, prosecutor Lara Pomerantz called Ms Maxwell a predator who recruited and groomed underage girls for her long-term companion Epstein to abuse.
"She preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them, and served them up to be sexually abused," the prosecutor said.
But the defence said Ms Maxwell was being scapegoated because Epstein was no longer alive.
"The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for things that Jeffrey Epstein did, but she is not Jeffrey Epstein," her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim argued.
Defence accuse key accuser of acting scene
The first of four Maxwell accusers to give evidence at the trial cried as she described being sexually abused by Epstein when she was 14.
The woman, using the pseudonym Jane, said Ms Maxwell showed her how Epstein liked to be massaged, and sometimes took part in their sexual encounters.
Accuser "Jane" cried when describing how difficult she found it to tell her story
"Ghislaine was very casual, acting like it wasn't a big deal," Jane said.
But Ms Maxwell's defence sought to find inconsistencies in Jane's testimony. Defence lawyer Laura Menninger pointed out that Jane now worked as an actress.
"You are an actor who convincingly portrays someone else for a living," the lawyer stated. "You are able to cry on command."
Employee 'told not to look Epstein in the eye'
Epstein's former housekeeper Juan Alessi recalled how Ms Maxwell had tightly controlled every detail in the financier's Florida mansion.
Ms Maxwell was the "lady of the house", ordering staff to speak only when spoken to and to avoid eye contact with Epstein, according to Mr Alessi, who said his job included cleaning their sex toys.
He said staff were given a 58-page instruction manual, warning them to keep Epstein's and Ms Maxwell's activities or whereabouts secret.
"I was supposed to be blind, deaf and dumb," Mr Alessi told the court.
Ms Maxwell's legal team sought to undermine the credibility of Mr Alessi during cross-examination, by challenging his recollection of meeting 14-year-old Jane in 1994.
Jurors shown Epstein's massage table
The jury was shown a green massage table seized from Jeffrey Epstein's Palm Beach mansion during a 2005 police raid.
A court image of the massage table seized at Jeffrey Epstein's home in 2005Image source, Reuters
Prosecutors showed jurors a massage table seized at Jeffrey Epstein's home during a 2005 raid
Prosecutors have alleged that Epstein used massages as a "ruse" before escalating his encounters with young girls.
Michael Dawson, a detective who took part in the 2005 search, recalled how officers found a variety of sexualised images at Epstein's home. Prosecutors also displayed a photo of a box labelled "Twin Torpedos", which Det Dawson said contained sex toys and was taken from an upstairs cupboard.
Never-before-seen photos link Maxwell to Epstein
Prosecutors released a collection of digital photos and files to demonstrate how close Epstein and Ms Maxwell were.
Taken from an FBI raid on Epstein's New York home in 2019, the evidence includes several pictures of the two together, sometimes embracing or being intimate with each other.
In one photo, the pair is seen relaxing at Balmoral Castle, the Queen's private Scottish residence.
Photos of Ms Maxwell were also shown mounted in parts of Epstein's Florida home. Another photo that shows her "nude and pregnant" allegedly hangs in the house, according to one of her accusers.
The collection also included a "help wanted" flyer for massage therapists in the area.
Maxwell 'dressed accuser as schoolgirl for Epstein'
A British woman using the pseudonym Kate cried on the stand as she described sexual encounters with Epstein when she was 14.
Kate said Ms Maxwell sometimes took part and acted "like it wasn't a big deal", often calling her a "good girl" and asking if she was having fun.
On one occasion, Ms Maxwell allegedly laid out a schoolgirl outfit on her bed and said: "I thought it would be fun for you to take Jeffrey his tea in this outfit." She said she wore the outfit and Epstein had sex with her.
Ms Maxwell also asked if she knew any "cute, young, pretty girls" who could perform sex acts on Epstein "because it was a lot for her to do".
Maxwell 'groped 16-year-old in topless massage'
Annie Farmer, the last accuser to take the stand, pointed at the defendant and alleged she had given her a topless massage at age 16.
On a visit to Epstein's New Mexico ranch, Ms Farmer testified that Ms Maxwell "pulled the sheet down and exposed my breasts and started rubbing on my chest and on my upper breasts".
"I was surprised," she said in court. "I wanted so badly to get off of the table."
Ms Farmer said she had a "sense" that Epstein - who she says groped her on three occasions - was nearby watching.
Epstein accuser: Ghislaine Maxwell is a 'master manipulator'
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