A jury found Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite accused of recruiting and grooming girls for deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, guilty on five of the six charges against her in late December.
She was found not guilty of one charge: enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
Maxwell could face a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
- Count 1: Conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts - maximum sentence of five years
- Count 2: Enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts - maximum sentence of five years
- Count 3: Conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity - maximum sentence of five years
- Count 4: Transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity - maximum sentence of 10 years
- Count 5: Conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors - maximum sentence of five years
- Count 6: Sex trafficking of minors - maximum sentence of 40 years
The Mann Act charges
Prosecutors say Maxwell between 1994 and 1997 persuaded an underaged girl to travel from Florida to New York with the intention of having her engage in sexual activity with Epstein. In 1996, prosecutors say Ms Maxwell gave an unsolicited massage to another minor girl who flew to Epstein’s New Mexico ranch from out-of-state while the girl was topless.
Maxwell was charged with two counts of violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting individuals across state lines for illegal sexual activity.
She also faced two charges of conspiring to violate those two sections of the Mann Act.
The sex trafficking charges
Prosecutors also said that Maxwell, beginning in 2001, recruited one of the four alleged victims to engage in sex acts with Epstein and provided her with hundreds of dollars in cash after massaging Epstein, knowing she was a minor. Maxwell sent gifts including lingerie from a New York address to the girl’s home in Florida, according to a 2021 indictment.
Those allegations formed the basis of charges of one charge of sex trafficking of a minor and one charge of sex trafficking conspiracy. Federal law bars recruiting or transporting anyone under 18 to participate in a “commercial sex act.” The trafficking charge did not require the child to be transported across state lines.
Maxwell’s defence
Maxwell, 59, pleaded not guilty to all of the charges. Over two days of testimony, her lawyers argued that prosecutors are treating her as a scapegoat for Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.
Her attorneys said that the alleged sex trafficking victim did not mention Maxwell while cooperating with a 2007 investigation by Florida federal prosecutors into Epstein. They argued that all four women named in the indictment have financial incentives to lie or exaggerate about Ms Maxwell’s involvement in the alleged abuse.
The perjury charges
Maxwell also faces two charges of perjury that will be tried at a later date.
Prosecutors have accused Maxwell of lying under oath in 2016 during a deposition for a civil lawsuit brought against her by Virginia Giuffre, who says she was abused by Epstein while a minor. Ms Giuffre alleged Maxwell had defamed her by saying Ms Giuffre lied about the abuse.
In the 2016 deposition, Maxwell said she did not recall the presence of sex toys in Epstein’s Palm Beach house and replied “I don’t know what you’re talking about” when asked if Epstein had a scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages.
Prosecutors characterised these statements as “false material declarations” in violation of a federal statute making it a crime to lie under oath. Her lawyers said in a February 2021 court filing that the questions posed were ambiguous and that Maxwell gave truthful responses.
Juror speaks out
One of the jurors in the case, identified by his first and middle names Scotty David, broke his silence to The Independent after the verdict. “For those who testified, for those who came forward and for those who haven’t come forward. I’m glad that Maxwell has been held accountable,” he said, while also revealing that he was a victim of sexual abuse. Scotty David said he shared that experience with his fellow jurors. The Maxwell defence team has argued for a mistrial over Scotty David’s revelations.
In an ITV documentary Ghislaine, Prince Andrew And The Paedophile, Scotty David further opened up about the trial.
“The prosecution had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ghislaine Maxwell was guilty of these crimes. and we all felt comfortable but the emotional toll it took on all of us after spending a week combing through all the evidence, all the testimony again, was, it was brutal,” he said.
The juror’s comments have now become part of a bid for a re-trial by Maxwell’s lawyers, who say he failed to disclosed his personal history of sexual abuse before the trial and thus tainted the outcome.
Scotty David is due to appear in court on March 8 to answer questions on the issue before Judge Alison Nathan rules on the motion for a re-trial.
Sentencing
US District Judge Alison J. Nathan announced that Maxwell will be sentenced on June 28 date even as she waits to resolve defence claims that a new trial should be ordered after a juror’s public admissions after the verdict about his childhood sexual abuse.
The judge said she’ll rule at a future date what will happen as a result of the revelations.
Reuters with additional reporting by AP
