Ghislaine Maxwell, the former of assistant of alleged sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was arrested in July and charged with four counts of sex trafficking of a minor and two counts of perjury, repeatedly denied her involvement in Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors according to unsealed deposition documents.
Not only did Maxwell claim that she never met Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s teen masseuses or “sex slaves,” even though she is pictured with the girl and Prince Andrew, but Maxwell also denied her participation in an orgy with a 13-year-old as well as knowledge about Epstein’s plot to recruit underage girls for sex.
These revelations about Maxwell, Epstein, and others come with the release of the 465-transcript from Maxwell’s 2016 deposition on Thursday.
The documents, which contain many redacted names including Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew, show how Maxwell was intertwined with Epstein’s alleged sex trafficking of minors and the billionaire’s business affairs. Maxwell also confirmed that, aside from business, she was close to Epstein on a personal level.
“There were times when I would have liked to think of myself as his girlfriend,” she said.
It is mind-boggling to me that the court is continuing to protect powerful men involved with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. If they didn't do anything wrong, why don't they allow full disclosure here? pic.twitter.com/p8aEfcGTX2
— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) October 22, 2020
Court also redacted the names of other men who may have been present at Jeffrey's homes or on his plane. Unclear on what basis these names were redacted.
— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) October 22, 2020
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against Maxwell’s pleas for the transcript to remain private on Monday.
While the release of the documents from a 2017 defamation lawsuit by Giuffre, the victim, was strongly contested by Maxwell’s legal counsel, they demonstrate the extent of Maxwell’s blatant lies about her knowledge of the underage girls she recruited to have sex with Epstein, contradicting photos and police reports confirming her involvement in the scheme.
“Again, I can’t testify to that because I have no idea what you are talking about,” Maxwell said while stonewalling in the deposition when asked if she had ever seen an underage girl in Epstein’s home.
Maxwell admitted to, “hardly ever” taking messages from underage girls at Epstein’s home.
Wow –
Maxwell was taking messages for girls who would call Epstein's house.
One girl was 15.
Maxwell: "I don't know who [she] is."
Attorney: "Your name is on the message." pic.twitter.com/LRSgRewOHY
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) October 22, 2020
Some of the previously unsealed documents detailed Maxwell’s part in recruiting teenage girls to have sex with Epstein and his “prominent friends” such as former Maine Sen. George Mitchell, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, French modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, American hotel magnate Tom Pritzker, and New York hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin as well as American attorney Alan Dershowitz.
In the newly unsealed documents, Maxwell reportedly contradicted herself with claims that she did not associate with Epstein after his time in jail in 2009 but is suing the Epstein estate saying that they must pay her legal bills because she was employed by Epstein at the time. She also denied that Epstein worked for her father Robert Maxwell, “a high-profile publishing baron who died under mysterious circumstances in 1991.”
Maxwell was indicted by a grand jury in July on charges related to 24 years of allegations.
“The sexual trafficking charges covered her alleged recruiting and grooming of three girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 1997,” the Miami Herald reports. “Maxwell is alleged to have partaken in the abuse with one of the girls. An extraordinarily lenient deal with federal prosecutors in 2008, spotlighted in the Herald’s Perversion of Justice series in November 2018, allowed Epstein to escape similar charges.”
Epstein died in prison after facing charges of sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
The Herald reports that this new information will be used in the ongoing criminal case and trial that is scheduled for July. Maxwell’s legal counsel “have argued that the deposition had been released illegally to federal prosecutors” and “would jeopardize chances of a fair trial in the criminal case.”