Prosecution rests in Maxwell sex-abuse trial

Prosecutors completed presenting their case against Ghislaine Maxwell on Friday, after a key accuser at the British socialite’s sex-abuse trial testified that Maxwell and her companion, Jeffrey Epstein, forced themselves on her when she was just 16.

Annie Farmer told jurors she accepted an invitation to the financier’s sprawling New Mexico ranch in 1996 hoping that Maxwell and Epstein would help her with academic endeavors. Instead, she said, Maxwell ended up massaging her breasts and Epstein climbed into bed without her permission.

Three others have asserted at the trial that began two weeks ago that Maxwell recruited them to give Epstein massages meant as a ruse for sexual abuse.

Maxwell, 59, has denied charges she groomed underage girls for Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019. Her lawyers say the government is making her a scapegoat for alleged sex crimes committed by her onetime boyfriend and moved immediately for a judgment of acquittal after prosecutors rested Friday afternoon.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan heard brief arguments and rejected the request that she acquit Maxwell without the jury ever getting the case.