America
Ghislaine Maxwell Found Guilty on Five Counts: Is Jeffrey Epstein’s Former Girlfriend Unpacking Now?
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The companion of the late financier and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein will probably spend her old age in prison. After long deliberations, a New York jury found 60-year-old Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five out of six counts.
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Ghislaine Maxwell prior to the delivery of the verdict in a New York courtroom.
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The deliberations were tough and lasted almost 40 hours. Time and again, the twelve jurors who debated the fate of Ghislaine Maxwell in a New York federal court behind closed doors asked for additional material, transcripts or a legal statement from Judge Alison Nathan.
But the verdict that the jury delivered on Wednesday leaves no questions unanswered. On five of the six counts, the six women and six men found sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein’s 60-year-old former girlfriend guilty. Accordingly, the jury saw it as proven that Maxwell had served her life and business partner from 1994 to 2004 as a pimp. Nor did the jury members believe Maxwell that they had not heard of Epstein’s crimes.
Maxwell is likely to challenge the verdict
The defendant, a daughter of the British press baron Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991, took note of the verdict without emotion in court room 318 of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in Manhattan. In a written statement, Bobbi Sternheim, Maxwell’s attorney, announced a complaint against the jury’s decision. She also said: “We firmly believe in Ghislaine’s innocence.”
Prosecutor Damian Williams, the governor of the national justice department in the southern borough of New York, said he was satisfied with the guilty verdict. In a video message, he said it had taken Maxwell far too long to be brought to justice. “But today justice has been done,” said the lawyer, who had only started his post in autumn 2021.
Video statement of US Attorney Damian Williams on the guilty verdict in US v. Ghislaine Maxwellhttps://t.co/oMgMbEgyv3 pic.twitter.com/6cJjDdDTD9
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 29, 2021
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For the hundreds of victims of Epstein, Maxwell’s condemnation amounts to belated satisfaction. The rich bon vivant may have sneaked out of responsibility by killing himself in a New York detention center in the summer of 2019. But his longtime companion, who paid Epstein millions of dollars for her work, may now have to spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Annie Farmer, the only one of four Epstein and Maxwell victims to testify under her real name in New York, said in a statement that she was “relieved and grateful” about the British woman’s conviction. Farmer also said of Maxwell, who had touched her immorally when she was a teenager:
“She hurt a lot of women. I hope this verdict brings comfort to all who need it. “
Judge Nathan did not announce on Wednesday when she would announce the sentence for Maxwell. But because the jury found her guilty of human trafficking, the Briton faces a prison sentence of more than 40 years.
We’ll unpack Maxwell now?
The defense had called Maxwell “not guilty” as prosecuted and presented her to the jury as a pawn of justice. “Ghislaine is being tried because she was with Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe that was the biggest mistake of her life. But it’s not a crime, ”one of her lawyers had said in the closing argument.
Maxwell, who had largely disappeared from the public eye after breaking up with Epstein, had not commented on the prosecution’s allegations. She did not take a seat on the stand. Their reasoning: The prosecution had not been able to substantiate the allegations against them.
After the verdict, Maxwell’s stance could now change. The British media already speculated on Wednesday that the former society lady would buy her way out by unpacking – and, for example, naming the names of Epstein’s friends who attended his parties and abused minors. In this context, the name of Prince Andrew, the second eldest son of the British Queen, keeps coming up. An Epstein victim, who did not testify at the Maxwell Trial, accused the noblewoman of rape in London. Epstein also spent a lot of time with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.
However, this is only a matter of speculation. The trial provided no evidence that the rich and beautiful Epstein liked to surround himself with were aware of his and Maxwell’s crimes. At the direction of Judge Nathan, the prosecution and defense dropped some innuendos. Numerous court documents also had passages blackened out or withheld from the public.
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