Ghislaine Maxwell case back in court as she appeals 2021 sex trafficking conviction
Maxwell, 62, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars last year, after being found guilty of five counts of trafficking and abusing young girls over decades
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Ghislaine Maxwell should have been protected by “immunity provisions” from a previous non-prosecution agreement in Florida, her attorneys have argued.
The disgraced British socialite, 62, returned to the spotlight this week as lawyers launched an appeal over her 2021 sex trafficking conviction.
During an appeal hearing in New York federal court on Tuesday, Diana Fabi Samson – representing Maxwell – referenced the 2008 non prosecution agreement, made by state prosecutors with late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in Florida.
Ms Samson said not honouring the terms of the agreement would “strike a dagger in the heart of the trust between the government and its citizens.”
“In the end, Ms. Maxwell was prosecuted for crimes that she as a third party beneficiary to the plea agreement in Florida should not have been prosecuted,” Ms Samson said.
Maxwell’s attorneys had previously argued that a juror failed to disclose that they were a sexual abuse victim.
It was a 2021 interview journalist Lucia Osborne-Crowley conducted with the juror Scotty David published in The Independent in the weeks following the Maxwell sex-trafficking verdict that led her legal team to appeal on this matter.
One of Maxwell’s attorneys, Arthur Aidala addressed the issue of an “impartial juror” outside court saying that the failure of Mr David to disclose he had been the victim of sexual assault was “wrong” and that the juror had “totally misrepresented the truth”.
“That is absolutely verboten. It’s wrong. And although the judge had a hearing, and he acknowledged he wasn’t accurate at all she said, ‘well, I think he made an honest mistake by not checking off that box so I’m going to let the verdict stand’,” he said.
Mr Aidala said the case should be “dismissed”, adding: “If we allow the government to make deals with the citizens with us, and then they decide, for whatever reason, they’re going to rip up that room and rip up that deal, that handshake means nothing.”
Maxwell was not present in the courtroom for Tuesday’s hearing, but was reportedly listening remotely from her jail cell in Florida.
She was convicted in 2021 of five counts of trafficking and abusing young girls over decades with Epstein. She was sentenced to 20 years behind bars in June 2022.
Recap: Ghislaine Maxwell appeal over 2021 sex trafficking conviction to begin in New York
Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell returns to the spotlight this week as lawyers launch an appeal over her conviction for sex trafficking in 2021 is due to begin this week.
Maxwell, 62, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars last year, after being found guilty of five counts of trafficking and abusing young girls over decades with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Read the full story here:
Ghislaine Maxwell appeal over 2021 sex trafficking conviction to begin in New York
British-born socialite, 62, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars last year after being found guilty of five counts of trafficking and abusing young girls over decade
Jeffrey Epstein grand jury records to be released
Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid for freedom comes as grand jury transcripts from a 2006 Florida investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of dozens of underage girls will be released publicly later this year.
The legislation was signed into law last month by Governor Ron DeSantis and will take effect on 1 July.
Epstein, a wealthy financier, cut a deal with South Florida federal prosecutors in 2008 that allowed him to escape more severe federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of procuring a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.
He was sentenced to 18 months in the Palm Beach County jail system, followed by 12 months of house arrest. He was required to register as a sex offender.
“What happened was clearly wrong and the punishment was wholly inadequate for the crime,” Mr DeSantis said as he signed the new measure into law.
Although some material could still be edited out, most of the grand jury transcripts should be released fairly soon after the new law’s July 1 effective date once a petition is filed seeking them.
The AP
Ghislaine Maxwell appeal to begin today
Lawyers appealing the 2021 sex trafficking conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell will give arguments to a three-jusdge panel later today.
The appeal is being heard at the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
Jurors found Maxwell guilty in December 2021 of five charges for recruiting and grooming four underage girls for Epstein, her former boyfriend, to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
The disgraced British socialite, 62, is housed at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. She is currently eligible for release in July 2037.
What accusers Carolyn, Jane, Kate and Annie Farmer said at her sex-trafficking trial
Almost 30 years after some of the alleged abuse took place, accusers of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell finally had their day in court during the socialite’s trial.
Four women – three of them testifying under pseudonyms – took the stand during Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial to allege that Epstein’s former girlfriend preyed on vulnerable underage girls and groomed them for abuse by the late financier.
The women testified that Maxwell, 60, both enabled Epstein in his abuse and took part in some of the abuse herself.
Maxwell was convicted on five of the six charges she was facing in December 2021. She was sentenced to 20 years behind bars plus a $750,000 fine in June 2022.
Here’s what the four accusers testified in court:
Ghislaine Maxwell: What Carolyn and three other accusers said at trial
Four witnesses testified about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. Here’s what they said, Rachel Sharp writes
What accuser 1 ‘Jane’ testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial
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The first accuser to take the stand testified that she was sexually abused by Maxwell and Epstein for years starting at the age of 14, with the abuse taking place across three of the disgraced financier’s homes in Florida, New Mexico and New York.
The Hollywood actor testified under the name “Jane” and court sketch artists were told not to draw her likeness in order to protect her identity.
Jane has never publicly identified herself as a survivor of Epstein and Maxwell’s alleged abuse and said she does not want to out of fears it will harm her acting career where “victim-shaming is still very present to this day”.
Jane told the court that she first met Maxwell and Epstein back in 1994 at the age of 14 when she was attending a summer camp for musicians and actors at the Interlochin Center for the Arts in Michigan.
Jane said Epstein told her he was a major donor for the camp and that he supported young talent, taking an interest in her classes and what she wanted to do.
When Jane told them she lived in Palm Beach, Florida, Epstein said he had a home there too and took her phone number.
Weeks later, she said she and her mother were invited to Epstein’s home for tea. After that first visit, the teenager would continue to regularly visit the Palm Beach home without her mother. At first, she said she looked upon Maxwell as a “quirky” older sister who would take her shopping and buy her clothes and Victoria’s Secret underwear.
Jane said Maxwell soon began talking to her about sex and once told her “if you f*** them once you can f*** them again because they are grandfathered in”.
Jane testified that the first time the abuse took place, Epstein led her into his pool house when she was 14.
There, he pulled the young girl on top of him on a couch and “proceeded to masturbate on me”, she said. Maxwell was not there that first time.
Jane described how she was “frozen in fear” and “had never seen a penis before”.
Epstein, she said, acted like “nothing had happened” afterwards and she told no one about the incident because she was “terrified and felt gross” and “ashamed”.
It was not long after that first incident that the 14-year-old was abused again - this time with Maxwell allegedly joining in the abuse, she said.
On that occasion, Jane testified that Maxwell and Epstein led her into a bedroom at Epstein’s Palm Beach home and undressed. She said the duo began “fondling each other” before asking her to take her top off. Jane testified that both Maxwell and Epstein touched her body during that encounter.
From then onwards, Jane said she continued to be sexually abused “every time” she visited one of Epstein’s properties as she was flown on his private jet - nicknamed the Lolita Express – between New York, Florida and New Mexico.
Often, she said, she would be led into a massage room and instructed by Maxwell to perform sexualised massages on Epstein. As well as Maxwell and Epstein, Jane said she was also forced to take part in group orgies with other older women.
What accuser 2 ‘Kate’ testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial
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The second accuser to take the stand in Maxwell’s 2021 trial, a British woman known only as “Kate”, said she was first introduced to Maxwell through an older boyfriend on a trip to Paris in 1994.
She said she was a “lonely” 17-year-old at the time and lived close to Maxwell in Belgravia, London, with her mother. When she returned home, she was invited to Maxwell’s home for tea. This first visit involved only her and Maxwell who she said she saw as a “new friend”.
On her next visit, Epstein was there and she was encouraged to massage the paedophile’s feet and shoulders to show him “how strong” she was.
Despite having no massage therapy training, she received a call a couple of weeks later from Maxwell asking her to come to her townhouse and massage Epstein. Kate testified that she was led upstairs by Maxwell to a massage room where Epstein was naked.
Maxwell gave her some massage oil and closed the door, shutting the teenager alone in a room with Epstein, according to Kate. Kate testified that Epstein then engaged in a sex act with her.
She said she was called back to the townhouse a few days later and was greeted by Maxwell who told her she “did such a good job last time”.
Maxwell then allegedly led Kate upstairs to the same room massage room telling her “have a good time” as she closed the door on her in a room with a naked Epstein. Epstein engaged in a sex act with Kate again this time, she said.
Afterwards, Kate said Maxwell asked her: “How did it go? Did you have fun? Was it good?”
Kate said she saw Maxwell and Epstein “multiple times” over the next few years as she was flown between the financier’s properties in New York and Florida and his Caribbean island Little St James for the sexual encounters.
Kate told the court that, on one occasion when she was 18, Maxwell laid out a schoolgirl’s outfit on a bed in Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion and told her she thought it would “be fun for you to take Jeffrey his tea in this outfit”.
“I didn’t know how to say no,” said Kate.
She said she wore the outfit for sex with Epstein and was told by Maxwell afterwards what “a good girl” she was and “that I was one of his favourites”.
What accuser 3 ‘Carolyn’ testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial
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The third accuser at Maxwell’s trial testified under her first name Carolyn telling the court that she was first introduced to Epstein through Virginia Roberts-Giuffre, the Epstein accuser seen in the now-infamous photo with Maxwell and Prince Andrew as a teenager.
Carolyn told the court how she had a difficult home life, living with an alcoholic mother and being raped by her grandfather from the age of four.
She said Ms Roberts-Giuffre first took her to Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion at the age of 14 suggesting she could make money from the wealthy older man.
On that first visit, she told the court she met Maxwell who told Ms Roberts-Giuffre to “bring her upstairs and show her what to do”. Ms Roberts-Giuffre showed Carolyn how Epstein liked to be massaged and she saw her engage in a sex act with Epstein that day, she testified.
Carolyn told the court that, after the first incident, she was called to Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion more than 100 times from the age of 14 to give Epstein sexualised massages in exchange for $300 cash.
At the peak of the alleged abuse, she would visit the home around two to three times a week, she said.
The visits were arranged by Maxwell, she said, who would call her to arrange “appointment times” for when the abuse took place. If she couldn’t reach her directly, Carolyn said the defendant would call her mother or boyfriend.
Carolyn testified that on at least one occasion she recalled Maxwell being the person who handed her the cash.
What accuser 4, Annie Farmer, testified at Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial
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Annie Farmer was the last accuser to testify at Maxwell’s trial and the only to waive her anonymity, after she has spoken out publicly in the past about the alleged abuse she and her sister Maria Farmer suffered at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell.
Ms Farmer told the court she first met Epstein at the age of 16 in 1995 through her older sister – an aspiring artist in New York who had recently started working for Epstein.
She said Epstein had bought her a plane ticket to New York with her sister telling her the billionaire wanted to help her with her education.
In April 1996, a 16-year-old Ms Farmer was invited to Epstein’s ranch in Santa Fe under the promise that he wanted to pay for her college study, she said.
When she arrived at the ranch, she realised she was the only young person there.
Ms Farmer said it was then decided that Maxwell would show her how to give Epstein a foot massage.
Then, Maxwell allegedly asked the teenager if she had ever had a professional massage.
“She said she wanted me to have that experience and would be happy to give me a massage,” testified Ms Farmer.
Ms Farmer told the court that Maxwell had told her to get undressed and get under the sheet on a massage table, which was already set up in the room she was staying in. Maxwell then “pulled the sheet down and exposed my breasts, and started rubbing on my chest and on my upper breast”, testified Ms Farmer.
The following morning, Epstein came into her room and climbed into her bed telling her he “wanted to cuddle”, she said.
Ms Farmer testified that the paedophile “pressed “his body into me” and she “felt kind of frozen”.
Later that day, she said Maxwell appeared to no longer be interested in talking to her about her education.
When she left the ranch after that visit, Ms Farmer said she did not speak to or see Maxwell again.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother claims sex trafficking conviction unsafe
Ian Maxwell has accused the US justice system of bias and said his convicted sex trafficker sister did not receive a fair trial, ahead of her crucial appeal hearing.
He has claimed that three jurors in the trial were unable to make impartial judgements because of their own history of sexual abuse.
Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Mr Maxwell said: “The American justice system and the court were biased against my sister, and she didn’t get a fair trial.
“How could they fairly and dispassionately consider evidence in a sex abuse case? On this issue alone, Ghislaine should have her conviction kicked out.”
Read more:
Ghislaine Maxwell’s brother: new evidence should free my sister
Exclusive: Ian Maxwell claims the American justice system was biased against his sister when a jury convicted her of sex trafficking underage girls
Virginia Giuffre’s victim impact statement: ‘You opened the door to hell’
At Maxwell’s trial, a victim impact statement was read on behalf of Virginia Giuffre. She did not testify.
In it, Ms Giuffre, who has subsequently settled a sexual assault case against Prince Andrew, said:
“I want to be clear about one thing: without question, Jeffrey Epstein was a terrible paedophile. But I never would have met Jeffrey Epstein if not for you. For me, and for so many others, you opened the door to hell.”
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