Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous predator, prosecutor says

NEW YORK – The proceedings of Ghislaine Maxwell speeded to a decorativeness Monday with a authoritative labeling her a unsafe and blase predator who recruited and groomed teenage girls to beryllium sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein portion a defence lawyer told jurors during closing arguments that Maxwell is an “innocent woman.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe said Epstein could not person preyed connected teenage girls for much than a decennary without the assistance of the British socialite, who she described arsenic the “lady of the house” arsenic Epstein abused girls astatine a New York mansion, a Florida property and a New Mexico ranch.

“Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous,” Moe told jurors, saying Maxwell accepted implicit $30 cardinal from Epstein implicit the years. “Maxwell and Epstein committed horrifying crimes.”

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Defense lawyer Laura Menninger said prosecutors had failed to beryllium immoderate charges beyond a tenable doubt.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is an guiltless woman, wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit,” Menninger said.

That portrayal conflicted with Moe's depiction of Maxwell arsenic a “sophisticated predator who knew precisely what she was doing. She ran the aforesaid playbook again and again and again.”

“She manipulated her victims and groomed them. She caused heavy and lasting harm to young girls. It is clip to clasp her accountable,” Moe said.

The summations came astatine the start of the 4th week of a trial that was primitively projected to past six weeks. With a coronavirus outbreak successful New York worsening by the time and a vacation play ahead, Judge Alison J. Nathan urged lawyers to support their closings choky truthful the assemblage could statesman deliberating arsenic aboriginal arsenic Monday.

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Menninger's closing revisited a taxable defence attorneys pressed astatine the trial's start: that Maxwell was made a scapegoat aft Epstein killed himself successful a Manhattan national jailhouse compartment successful August 2019 arsenic helium awaited a enactment trafficking trial.

“Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein,” Menninger said.

Maxwell, 59, was supported successful tribunal by 4 siblings who sat adjacent to 1 different successful the archetypal enactment of spectators.

Maxwell has been jailed without bail since her apprehension successful July 2020. The justice has denied her bail repeatedly, contempt her lawyer's arguments that the pledge of her $22.5 cardinal property and a willingness to beryllium watched 24 hours a time by equipped guards would warrant her quality successful court.

The closings came aft 2 twelve prosecution witnesses testified, including four women who accidental they were abused by Epstein with the assistance of Maxwell erstwhile they were teenagers.

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Moe faced the assemblage arsenic Maxwell, successful a achromatic sweater, sat down her astatine the defence array and wrote notes, occasionally turning the pages of a notebook. Later, Maxwell turned successful her seat toward the jury, sometimes pulling down her achromatic disguise to sip from a h2o bottle.

The authoritative told jurors that Maxwell was a “posh, smiling age-appropriate woman” who provided screen for Epstein’s “creepy” behavior.

She asked them to disregard the grounds of a science prof who testified for the defense, saying the grounds that memories tin slice implicit clip and beryllium influenced by what radical hear, spot oregon work was a “total distraction.”

“These women cognize what happened to their ain bodies,” she said. “Your communal consciousness tells you that being molested is thing you ne'er forget, ever.”

But Menninger defended the grounds of the representation expert, citing instances successful which Maxwell’s accusers ne'er mentioned the defendant’s sanction erstwhile they archetypal spoke of the maltreatment they endured from Epstein.

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She said the grounds from accusers was manipulated by civilian lawyers representing them arsenic they pursued millions of dollars successful payouts from a peculiar money acceptable up aft Epstein’s termination to compensate his victims.

Menninger said the women abruptly “recovered memories that Ghislaine was there.”

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