Ghislaine Maxwell Trial: Prosecutors Reportedly Plan to Unseal Black Book Featuring Names of Victims
08:40 GMT 21.11.2021 (Updated: 08:41 GMT 21.11.2021)
© REUTERS / JANE ROSENBERG
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Maxwell is accused by several women of luring them into the hands of US financier Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly raped and sexually abused them. She faces eight charges, including sex trafficking of minors and enticing minors as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts. She claims she is innocent.
Prosecutors plan to use a notebook featuring the contacts and names of Jeffrey Epstein's victims as compelling evidence during the upcoming trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, The Sunday Times has reported, citing pre-trial court papers it viewed. According to them, prosecutors believe the notebook, which belongs to Maxwell, provides "compelling evidence" of her guilt.
"Government Exhibit 52 is a printed, bound contact book, containing dozens of pages of contacts, including family and friends of the defendant. There were multiple copies of that book in the Palm Beach residence, and [one witness] recalls seeing a copy in the defendant's office. [It contains] contact information for victims who interacted with the defendant during the relevant time period ... [it] is compelling evidence of her guilt", the court papers state as per The Sunday Times.
The existence of the notebook emerges a week before Ghislaine Maxwell, who is said to have groomed young women and underage girls for sex offender Epstein, is to go on trial. Her lawyers have dismissed the significance of the notebook describing it as "an unauthenticated hearsay document from suspect sources". Maxwell's legal team is said to have hired an expert to cast doubt over the notebook's value if is presented to the jury.
Relations With Epstein and Details of the Upcoming Trial
Ghislaine Maxwell is the daughter of UK publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell. In the 1990s, she met Jeffrey Epstein, a US financier and millionaire. The two dated and it is said that even after their breakup, they maintained close contact. In 2019, Epstein was charged with running a sex trafficking network of minors. Dozens of women claimed that he had sexually abused and raped them, including when they were minors.
The alleged victims accused Maxwell of luring them into the hands of Epstein by promising them well-paid jobs at the millionaire's house. Some of the women claimed that she not only groomed them, but also took part in the abuse.
Epstein's alleged victims didn't find justice as the financier was found dead in his jail cell on 10 August 2019, while awaiting trial. Thus, Maxwell is the only person who can shed light on his crimes. Her trial will begin in New York on 29 November. It will last for about six weeks with a brief pause over Christmas
Maxwell faces eight charges, including sex trafficking of minors and enticing minors as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts. She claims she is innocent and her legal team has argued that prosecutors have made her a scapegoat for Epstein's crimes.
According to pre-trial court papers, here is what to expect from the upcoming hearing:
The alleged victims accused Maxwell of luring them into the hands of Epstein by promising them well-paid jobs at the millionaire's house. Some of the women claimed that she not only groomed them, but also took part in the abuse.
Epstein's alleged victims didn't find justice as the financier was found dead in his jail cell on 10 August 2019, while awaiting trial. Thus, Maxwell is the only person who can shed light on his crimes. Her trial will begin in New York on 29 November. It will last for about six weeks with a brief pause over Christmas
Maxwell faces eight charges, including sex trafficking of minors and enticing minors as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts. She claims she is innocent and her legal team has argued that prosecutors have made her a scapegoat for Epstein's crimes.
According to pre-trial court papers, here is what to expect from the upcoming hearing:
Four of Epstein purported victims will testify using aliases and their first names;
One of them, mentioned in papers as "Minor Victim 4", is set to disclose the existence of two other underage victims. "Specifically, Minor Victim 4 will testify that she was recruited by Minor Victim 5, and that she in turn recruited Minor Victim 6", the court papers read;
Prosecutors plan to present a manual that contains rules for staff working at Epstein's mansions. The document reportedly includes instructions such as "see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing";
Former model Adriana Ross is set to testify against Maxwell. Ross, 38, is known as Jeffrey Epstein's "scheduler" and is said to have cleared computers and notebooks of Epstein when the financier's mansions were raided during his first criminal case. Ross is reportedly one of Epstein's co-conspirators granted immunity as part of a plea deal he struck with federal prosecutors in 2008, when Epstein was convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution and spent 18 months in jail.
