Ghislaine Maxwell was a “sophisticated predator” who played a critical role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme by quieting “alarm bells” going off in underage victims’ heads as a middle-aged man abused them, a jury heard Monday.
The wealthy British socialite was Epstein’s “right hand” and “lady of the house,” Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Alison Moe told jurors. In those roles, Maxwell was fully aware of what her lover — and employer — was doing to the vulnerable young girls she recruited for his abuse, the prosecutor said.
“Epstein liked underage girls. He liked to touch underage girls. Maxwell knew it,” charged Moe. “Make no mistake: Maxwell was crucial to the whole scheme. Epstein could not have done it alone.”
Moe delivered the blistering denunciation of the multimillionaire British socialite in the government’s closing arguments. The jury deliberated for about 40 minutes late in the afternoon before heading home.
“Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” the prosecutor said. “She caused deep and lasting damage to young girls.”
Moe highlighted bank records showing Epstein wired Maxwell tens of millions of dollars in 1999, 2002 and 2007.
“Your common sense tells you, you don’t give someone $30 million unless they’re giving you exactly what you want, and what Epstein wanted was to touch underage girls,” Moe said.
The prosecutor directed the jury to Maxwell’s “little black books,” which included exhaustive lists of girls as young as 14 whom she would book for Epstein’s “massages.” Alongside many of the girls’ names were notations like “mom” or “parents,” Moe said.
“When you contact a professional masseuse, you don’t need to call Mom or Dad,” the prosecutor said. “These were millionaires who could hire the top massage therapists in the whole world.”
Maxwell, at times, closed her eyes and took deep breaths as the prosecutor spoke.
The feds say Maxwell began dating Epstein in the early 1990s and soon began procuring underage victims for him to abuse. She allegedly continued recruiting victims as their relationship fizzled in the early 2000s.
If found guilty of all charges, the 59-year-old faces the prospect of spending the rest of her life in prison.
The sex trafficking suspect wore a beige turtleneck and a black surgical mask to closing arguments. In a show of solidarity, four of her siblings, Kevin, Ian, Christine and Isabel Maxwell, arrived at court early Monday linking arms. The Daily News heard Maxwell chatting with them in French before the jury arrived.
Maxwell lawyer Laura Menninger, meanwhile, reiterated that her client was wrongly serving as a stand-in for Epstein. The defense attorney argued Maxwell was also manipulated by Epstein. Testimony showed Epstein was dating girls behind Maxwell’s back.
“Ghislaine is being tried here for being with Jeffrey Epstein,” Menninger said. “Maybe it was the biggest mistake of her life, but it (was) not a crime.”
Prosecutors called fewer witnesses than anticipated and finished presenting evidence weeks earlier than expected. During the trial, Manhattan Federal Judge Alison Nathan granted requests from the defense to redesignate two Maxwell accusers, Annie Farmer and Kate, as witnesses — and not minor victims — due to the age-of-consent laws where their abuse allegedly occurred.
“The government promised you an array of witnesses,” said Menninger. “They bombed on this promise.”
She urged jurors not to trust victims’ memories due to the decades that had passed since the alleged abuse, the media maelstrom surrounding the Epstein scandal, and what she characterized as money-hungry lawyers eager to get a payout from an out-of-court program for Epstein victims.
“What you learned is that the truth was manipulated and changed over time,” Menninger said. “Memory fades over time. … Money is a powerful manipulator.”
Prosecutors called 24 witnesses over 10 days to present their case against Maxwell, including four women who said she groomed them for Epstein’s sexual abuse and sometimes participated in it.
Testifying under a pseudonym, Jane said she had just turned 14 and lost her father when Maxwell approached her with Epstein at the prestigious Interlochen summer arts camp in Michigan in 1994. She said the couple began routinely abusing her in group sex encounters within months and that Maxwell arranged for her travel from Palm Beach, Florida, to Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse.
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.
Kate said she was 17 when she met Maxwell in Paris. Within months Maxwell called upon the British teen to perform sex acts on Epstein, she said.
Annie Farmer described being fondled by Maxwell during a sexualized massage at Epstein’s New Mexico ranch when she was 16.
Moe told the jury that it was no coincidence that Maxwell’s alleged victims were facing hardships in their home lives.
“It is not an accident that Jane and Kate and Annie and Carolyn all came from single-mother households,” Moe said, referring to the accusers. “Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous. She was a grown woman who preyed on vulnerable kids — young girls from struggling families.”
The jury will have until Wednesday to deliberate when the court breaks for the holiday.
During the government’s rebuttal, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey told the jury that the strongest evidence was the women on the stand who described Maxwell’s alleged abuse.
“The defendant never thought that those teenage girls would have the strength to report what happened to them. In her eyes, they were just trash, beneath her,” she said.
“Who would believe Jane or Kate or Carolyn or Annie over Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with presidents and celebrities and business leaders? The defendant didn’t count on those teenagers growing up into the women who testified at this trial.”
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