Maxwell, Epstein were ‘partners in crime,’ prosecutor says

By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS

NEW YORK (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were “partners successful crime” successful the intersexual maltreatment of teenage girls, a authoritative said Monday successful opening statements, with the defence countering that similar truthful galore women earlier her, Maxwell was being made a scapegoat for a man’s atrocious behavior.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz said astatine the commencement of Maxwell’s enactment trafficking proceedings that the British socialite and Epstein enticed girls arsenic young arsenic 14 to prosecute successful “so-called massages” successful which enactment maltreatment came to beryllium seen arsenic “casual and normal” aft they were showered with wealth and gifts.

The authoritative sought to marque wide to a assemblage of 12 that determination was nary disorder astir whether Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime companion, was his puppet oregon accomplice.

She described Maxwell, 59, arsenic cardinal to Epstein’s enactment maltreatment scheme, which prosecutors accidental lasted implicit a decade.

“She was successful connected it from the start. The suspect and Epstein lured their victims with a committedness of a agleam future, lone to sexually exploit them,” Pomerantz said.

Maxwell “was progressive successful each item of Epstein’s life,” the authoritative said. “The suspect was the woman of the house.”

Even aft Maxwell and Epstein stopped being romantically involved, the brace “remained the champion of friends,” Pomerantz said.

She said Maxwell “helped normalize abusive intersexual conduct” by making the teenagers consciousness harmless and by taking them connected buying trips and asking them astir their lives, their schools and their families.

The authoritative spoke from an enclosed integrative see-through container that allowed her to instrumentality disconnected her disguise arsenic Maxwell, successful a cream-colored sweater and achromatic pants, astatine times wrote and passed notes to her lawyers.

When she finished, lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said her lawsuit was a “scapegoat for a antheral who behaved badly.” Maxwell, she said, was being blamed for a man’s atrocious behaviour conscionable arsenic truthful galore women person before, each the mode backmost to Adam and Eve.

“She’s not Jeffrey Epstein. She’s not similar Jeffrey Epstein” oregon immoderate of the almighty men, moguls and media giants who maltreatment women, Sternheim said.

“He’s the proverbial elephant successful the room. He is not visible, but helium is consuming this full courtroom and overflow courtrooms wherever different members of the nationalist are viewing,” she said.

Sternheim said the 4 women who would attest that Maxwell recruited them to beryllium sexually abused were suffering from quarter-century-old memories and the power of lawyers who guided them to get wealth from a money acceptable up by Epstein’s property aft his August 2019 termination successful a Manhattan national jailhouse arsenic helium awaited a enactment trafficking trial.

The lawyer said “accusers person shaken the wealth tree, and millions of dollars person fallen their way.”

The openings came successful the afternoon, aft hours successful the greeting were mislaid to questions astir whether 2 prospective jurors could enactment passim the six weeks the proceedings is projected to last.

During the morning, Maxwell gazed often astatine her sister, who was seated successful the beforehand enactment of a spectator conception diminished successful abstraction by coronavirus restrictions.

One prospective juror was dismissed aft helium acknowledged he’d had to perceive to idiosyncratic helium knew who was “passionate” astir the case. Another juror’s employment was successful jeopardy until the justice contacted the leader to velocity the process of support for the juror’s service.

Maxwell — who erstwhile dated the financier — is accused of acting arsenic Epstein’s main enabler, recruiting and grooming young girls for him to abuse. The charges against her stem from the allegations of 4 women who accidental she and Epstein victimized them arsenic teens from 1994 to 2004.

Pomerantz said the maltreatment occurred astatine Epstein’s homes, including his property successful Palm Beach, Florida; his posh Manhattan townhouse; a Santa Fe, New Mexico, ranch; a Paris apartment; and a luxury property successful the Virgin Islands.

Authorities charged Maxwell successful July 2020, arresting her aft tracking her to a $1 cardinal New Hampshire property wherever she had been holed up during the coronavirus pandemic.

Maxwell has pleaded not blameworthy and vehemently denies wrongdoing. She has been jailed successful Brooklyn since her arrest, calling the claims against her “absolute rubbish.” Maxwell’s lawyers and household accidental she was Epstein’s pawn, present paying “a humor price” to fulfill nationalist tendency to spot idiosyncratic held accountable for his crimes.

The wealthy, Oxford-educated Maxwell is the girl of British paper magnate Robert Maxwell, who died successful 1991 aft falling disconnected his yacht — named the Lady Ghislaine — adjacent the Canary Islands. Robert Maxwell, whose holdings astatine the clip included the New York Daily News, was facing allegations that helium had illegally looted his businesses’ pension funds.

Ghislaine Maxwell holds U.S., British and French citizenships and was repeatedly denied bail successful the run-up to her trial.