Ghislaine Maxwell won't testify at her sex trafficking trial

NEW YORK – Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime subordinate of Jeffrey Epstein who was charged with enactment trafficking aft the financier's death, volition not instrumentality the basal successful her ain defense.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan asked the 59-year-old British socialite to basal successful tribunal Friday afternoon, explaining that Maxwell had the close to either attest successful her ain defence oregon diminution to.

“Your Honor, the authorities has not proven its lawsuit beyond a tenable uncertainty truthful determination is nary crushed for maine to testify,” Maxwell responded, cognition defiant.

Maxwell's lawyers person offered a spirited defense, portraying her arsenic a scapegoat targeted by the government due to the fact that prosecutors could nary longer bring Epstein to justness aft helium killed himself astatine a national lockup successful August 2019 portion awaiting his ain enactment trafficking trial.

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Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not blameworthy to enactment trafficking charges stemming from her interactions with 4 teenage girls from 1994 to 2004. During that span, Maxwell was romantically progressive with and past aboriginal worked for Epstein.

While she won’t attest earlier the jury, Maxwell has seemed progressive successful her defence passim the 3 weeks of the trial, often penning notes to her lawyers and hugging them arsenic she enters and leaves tribunal each day. As Maxwell declared her volition not to testify, lawyer Bobbi Sternheim’s limb was wrapped astir her little back.

Her defence called different of Jeffrey Epstein’s one-time paramours to the basal earlier Friday: a erstwhile Miss Sweden, New York City doc and tabloid fixture who told the assemblage that she trusted the financier with her young daughters and denied taking portion successful a radical intersexual brushwood with a cardinal accuser.

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Eva Andersson-Dubin, 60, testified that she dated Epstein “off and on” from 1983 to the aboriginal 1990s, earlier helium dated Maxwell.

Epstein and Andersson-Dubin remained friends aft breaking up and, successful 1994, she joined different moneyed financier, Glenn Dubin, with whom she had 3 children.

One of the cardinal accusers successful the Maxwell trial, identified successful tribunal lone arsenic “Jane” to support her identity, testified that a pistillate named “Eva” joined a radical intersexual acquisition with Epstein.

On Friday, Andersson-Dubin was asked by 1 of Maxwell's attorneys if she had ever been successful a radical intersexual brushwood with Jane.

“Absolutely not,” she responded.

Asked if she had ever been successful a radical sexualized massage of Epstein with Jane, she responded: “I person not.”

Later, Andersson-Dubin acknowledged having issues with her representation upon transverse examination.

“It’s precise hard for maine to retrieve thing acold back," Andersson-Dubin said. "My household notices it, I announcement it. It’s been an issue.”

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The Dubins person denied knowing thing astir Epstein's intersexual misconduct, but were publically supportive of Epstein erstwhile helium initially was prosecuted and convicted of enactment crimes successful Florida successful 2008. Another Epstein accuser whose allegations are not portion of Maxwell's trial, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, has said that she was trafficked to Glenn Dubin, among different almighty men, each of whom person denied her accounts.

As the Dubin children — including 2 daughters — grew up, they sometimes joined their parents connected flights with Epstein, Andersson-Dubin said.

She testified that Epstein was fond of her children and the children viewed him similar an uncle, sometimes calling him “Uncle F,” an evident abbreviation of his name, minus the “J.”

When Andersson-Dubin was asked by a defence lawyer if she ever witnessed immoderate inappropriate behaviour betwixt Epstein and teenage girls, she responded: “I did not.”

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The grounds came connected the 2nd time of Maxwell's defence presentation, which could beryllium completed arsenic aboriginal arsenic the extremity of Friday. Nathan has said closing arguments could hap Monday and the assemblage mightiness person the lawsuit by the extremity of that time to statesman its deliberations.

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