Prosecutors will offer immunity to a Ghislaine Maxwell juror at the centre of a retrial bid after he said he planned to invoke his 5th Amendment right to remain silent at an upcoming hearing.
Juror 50, known by his first names Scotty David, is due to appear in court on 8 March to answer questions on whether he lied in a pre-trial survey about whether he had personal experience of sexual abuse.
The questionnaire, which was unsealed by the court on 24 January, revealed that Scotty David did not disclose that he had been a victim of sex abuse.
Maxwell’s lawyers have argued that the failure to disclose his history, which he later discussed in media interviews, was grounds for a retrial.
His lawyer, Todd Spodek, wrote to Judge Alison Nathan on Wednesday to say the juror planned to invoke his right to silence to avoid self-incrimination.
In response, the US Attorney in Manhattan Damian Williams told Judge Nathan they were prepared to grant the juror immunity from prosecution.
Scotty David first revealed to the The Independent how he shared his own experience of being sexually assaulted as a child with other jury members during deliberations.
In a separate interview with Reuters he said did not recall being asked about sexual abuse during pre-trial selection and that he “flew through” a survey given to all prospective jurors.
Last week, Judge Nathan ordered the juror to “give testimony under oath in response to the Court’s questions”.
“Following trial, Juror 50 made several direct, unambiguous statements to multiple media outlets about his own experience that do not pertain to jury deliberations and that cast doubt on the accuracy of his responses during jury selection.”
In December, Maxwell was convicted of five sex-trafficking charges in a federal courthouse in Manhattan for recruiting and grooming young girls to be abused by her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell, who is due to be sentenced in June, faces up to 65 years in prison.
Epstein died in prison in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex-trafficking offenses.
His death was ruled suicide by the medical examiner.
