Ryan DeLarme,
December 1st, 2021
Today was day 3 of the 6-week trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s been accused of sex-trafficking minors. The first accuser, going by the pseudonym “Jane”, took the stand again this morning at the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in lower Manhattan.
“Jane” testified yesterday, claiming that Ghislaine lured her into Epstein’s orbit. She also claimed that while visiting the late financier’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, Maxwell and Epstein led her upstairs to his bedroom where they “took her clothes off”.
“He asked me to take my top off,” the witness continued. “Then there were hands everywhere and Jeffrey proceeded to masturbate again. And Ghislaine was like rubbing on him, kissing on him.”
“During these incidents did Maxwell ever touch your body?” Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe asked.
“Yes,” Jane answered.
She also described group sex sessions taking place at Epstein’s lavish home in the mid-1990s, when she and others, including Maxwell, would “abruptly” be summoned to his bedroom or a massage room.
Her testimony goes into greater detail, and can be read here.
The theme seems to be that Ghislaine and Jefferey would single out young girls who were on hard times in one way or another, shower them in gifts and special attention, and eventually they would pounce.
Maxwell’s brother Kevin appeared in court today, a sister of hers, Isabel, has also been present for the proceedings. Ghislaine’s siblings have been supportive of her, even petitioning the United Nations to get her out on bail.
The siblings were raised in luxury, the children of publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell and his French-born wife Elisabeth, a Holocaust scholar.
The Maxwell family, including Ghislaine (top center)
The day began with the defense, Laura Menninger, grilling the first accuser and attempting to poke holes in Jane’s claims that she came from a poor, broken family when Epstein and Maxwell allegedly began preying on her in 1994.
Jane, in yesterday’s testimony, claimed that her family fell into bankruptcy after her dad died of leukemia and that she lived in a pool house with her mom and siblings at the time she was drawn in by Maxwell and Epstein.
Defense attorney Menninger challenged Jane over her testimony from the day prior regarding the first time she saw Maxwell without her clothes on.
The alleged victim said that — shortly after she was first abused by Jeffrey Epstein at the age of 14 — he and Maxwell led her to his bedroom inside his Palm Beach mansion, moved her over to the bed and “took their clothes off.”
When questioning Jane this morning, Menninger said that in Dec. 2019 “you told the government that you do not have a specific memory of your first time with Ghislaine.”
“You have come up with that memory in the last two years, correct?” she asked.
“I don’t believe I’ve come up with a memory, no,” the witness answered.
During the cross examination, Jane said that Jeffrey Epstein took her to Mar-a-Lago in the ’90s when she was a teenager to meet Donald Trump.
The woman, identified by the pseudonym “Jane,” said Epstein drove her to Trump’s Palm Beach estate in a dark green car when she was 14 in 1994.
She wasn’t asked to describe the meeting, and defense attorney Laura Menninger then moved on to an unrelated line of questioning.
Jane then mentioned another big name: Prince Andrew.
testified today that she remembered Prince Andrew being on flights with her.
The Duke of York has been under fire for his close ties to the late pedophile and is also facing a lawsuit from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims Epstein and Maxwell made her have sex with the UK royal three times, starting in 2001 when she was 17.
It is important to note that Giuffre’s claims are not part of Maxwell’s ongoing federal sex-trafficking trial.
More updates to come.
Ryan DeLarme 