Deliberations underway in Ghislaine Maxwell trial
NEW YORK — A jury began deliberations Monday, tasked with considering whether Ghislaine Maxwell is a dangerous predator who recruited teens to be sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein — as prosecutors put it — or the “innocent woman” a defense attorney described.
The jury received the case just before 5 p.m. after two prosecutors and a defense lawyer delivered their closing arguments over a six-hour period. They deliberated less than an hour and went home after being told to return at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Maxwell, 59, had been composed, if not cheerful, as she interacted with her lawyers and family members for the first three weeks of the trial.
But she seemed emotional as Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey rebutted defense arguments and asserted the British socialite believed her four trial accusers were beneath her.
“In her eyes, they were just trash,” Comey said as Maxwell shook her head slightly and then drooped her eyes.
Earlier, she had wiped her eyes twice as Comey attacked defense portrayals of the women who testified about abuse they incurred as teenagers. The prosecutor said Maxwell played a pivotal role in Epstein’s quest to sexually abuse teenage girls.
Defense lawyer Laura Menninger had argued that the women’s recollections of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell were flawed memories manipulated decades later by lawyers seeking payouts or U.S. government investigators seeking a scapegoat after Epstein killed himself in a federal jail in 2019 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial.
Comey called a defense claim that Maxwell didn’t know about abuse that occurred for more than a decade a “laughable argument.”
“Those four witnesses gave you the most damaging testimony in this trial,” she said. “These women put themselves through the hell of testifying at this trial even though they have nothing to gain.”
Comey added: “They did it for justice.”