Ghislaine Maxwell was a ‘sophisticated predator’ and Jeffrey Epstein’s ‘right hand,’ prosecutor says in closing arguments of NYC sex trafficking trial

The New York Daily News - 12/20/2021

Ghislaine Maxwell was a “sophisticated predator” who played a crucial role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme by helping “silence the alarm bells” going off in underage victims’ heads, a prosecutor said in closing arguments Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe said Maxwell was Epstein’s “right hand” and “lady of the house.”

“Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” said Moe. “She caused deep and lasting damage to young girls. It is time to hold her accountable.

“Epstein liked underage girls. He liked to touch underage girl. Maxwell knew it.”

The prosecutor delivered the blistering denunciation during the government’s closing argument against Maxwell in Manhattan Federal Court.

She’s accused of grooming underage Epstein victims for abuse between 1994 and 2004. If found guilty of all charges, the 59-year-old faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison.

“Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous. She was a grown woman who preyed on vulnerable kids — young girls from struggling families,” Moe said.

Moe’s final words to jurors before they start deliberating came after the defense rested its case Friday, bringing an early end to the trial expected to last through mid-January.

A defiant Maxwell told the court that day she would not take the stand.

“Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and so there is no need for me to testify,” Maxwell told Judge Alison Nathan.

Maxwell wore a beige turtleneck and a black surgical mask to closing arguments. In a show of solidarity, four of her siblings arrived to court early Monday linking arms, Kevin, Ian, Christine and Isabel Maxwell. She was heard chatting with them in French before the jury arrived.

Prosecutors called 24 witnesses over 10 days to lay out their case against Maxwell, including four women who said the British socialite groomed them for Epstein’s sexual abuse between 1994 to 2004 and sometimes participated in it.

“She said (Epstein) needed to have sex about three times a day,” one accuser, Kate, told jurors in Manhattan Federal Court, describing abuse she said began when she was 17.

She remembered Maxwell once asking “if I knew anybody who would come and give Jeffrey a b—w job because it was a lot for her.”

“She said, ‘You know what he likes: Cute, young, pretty. Like you,’” Kate testified.

Nathan granted requests from the defense during the trial to re-designate two of the women as witnesses and not alleged victims.

Testifying under a pseudonym, another accuser, Janesaid she had just turned 14 and lost her father when Maxwell approached her with Epstein at a the prestigious Interlochen summer arts camp in Michigan in 1994. Within months, the couple had begun routinely abusing her in group sex encounters, she said.

Carolyn, testifying under her first name only, told the jury she was a middle school dropout and a child victim of rape and incest when Maxwell groped her and began scheduling her to perform sexualized massages on Epstein at 14.

The only of Maxwell and Epstein’s four accusers to testify under her true identity, Annie Farmer, described being fondled by Maxwell during a sexualized massage at Epstein’s New Mexico ranch when she was 16. She believed Epstein was watching.

All four women described an initial grooming period with Maxwell, telling the jury about how they opened up to her emotionally on luxury shopping trips or outings to the movies, paid for by Epstein and Maxwell. The next step in the alleged grooming involved the pair making increasingly sexual comments around the victim, before Epstein and Maxwell began sexually abusing the victims through abusive massages, the accusers testified.

Among their nine witnesses, Maxwell’s lawyers called her former assistant, who said she “looked up to” her former boss when she worked at J. Epstein & Co. on Madison Ave in the late 1990s.

Eva Dubin, the wife of billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, also took the stand in Maxwell’s defense. The Manhattan doctor and former Miss Sweden told the jury she never saw Maxwell do anything untoward, nor participated in group sexualized massages with Jane, contrary to the first accuser’s testimony.

Maxwell’s lawyers contend the government is scapegoating her in Epstein’s absence after he killed himself in 2019. Their questions for the accusers sought to cast doubt on the women’s credibility, accusing them in part of having financial motivations in testifying against Maxwell.

The six felony sex trafficking charges Maxwell faces in the trial carry a possible 70-year prison term. She faces separate perjury charges for lying about the alleged conduct under oath, potentially adding ten more years behind bars if convicted.

The jury will have until Wednesday to deliberate, when the court breaks for the holiday. Maxwell is set to turn 60 on Christmas Day.