BREAKING: Ghislaine Maxwell Trial: Prosecution Expertly Deconstructs Defense’s Key Witness
From the start of Ghislaine Maxwell’s federal trial, defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim has proclaimed the charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for child abuse crimes committed by deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, not his client, stating, “…she is not Jeffrey Epstein.”
They called Dr. Elizabeth Loftus to the stand on the defense’s first day to discredit Jeffrey Epstein’s and Ghislaine Maxwell’s accusers by claiming that recollections cannot be trusted. Below, Los Angeles child abuse attorney Michael Ehline covers the salient facts and procedure thus far in the case.
Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to charges that prosecutors claim to demonstrate that she and Epstein were “partners in crime.” The defense responded by arguing that she is being used as a scapegoat for 66-year-old Jeffrey Epstein, who allegedly hanged himself in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial.
According to the New York Post, before he pleaded guilty to a sex crime involving a minor in Florida in 2008, Jeffrey Epstein hosted lavish parties with high-profile personalities, including former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, and Britain’s Prince Andrew. He also socialized with Maxwell, worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
The federal trial against Maxwell is expected to last about six weeks. The sex-related charges against Maxwell will be the focus of this trial. She will be tried for perjury individually rather than about the other sexual abuse charges.
On Thursday, the high-profile trial of Ghislaine Maxwell continued in New York, with accused sex trafficker Maxwell’s lawyers(former lover to Jeffrey Epstein), calling their sex-trafficking trial witnesses to refute the charges made in District Court last week of Maxwell procuring young girls, including these four alleged victims and more than one other Epstein accuser in New York City.
The convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite intimately associated with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, have been accused of recruiting underage girls whom Epstein caressed and groomed sexually abuse.
Based upon flight logs, Donald Trump is one of few political leaders, and at least one member of the British family (Britain’s Prince Andrew) who law enforcement says didn’t fly to the notorious “Pedophile Island” to allegedly spend time among Epstein’s underage girls and staff.
Annie Farmer Spills the Beans Over Jeffrey Epstein and Sexual Massage
Some of the alleged child abuse victims assert that they were made to give sexual massages to Mr. Epstein, as ordered by Ms. Maxwell. Prosecutors allowed Annie Farmer to testify using her real name, the only one of Maxwell’s four young women accusers to testify doing so.
She testified last that she was 16 years old and on a trip to Epstein’s ranch in New Mexico when Maxwell gave her a naked massage and groped her. She spoke of inappropriate massage and over Epstein climbing into her bed early one morning to “cuddle,” stating, “I felt kind of frozen.”
Farmer is among many teenage girls who have exclaimed rape during Maxwell’s trial. Ms. Annie Farmer, now 42, testified about sexual relations she had with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell when she was 16 years old during her illegal sex acts trial.
The prosecution’s last witness was Janice Swain, Annie Farmer’s mother. She gave a parent’s perspective on the trip taken by Farmer to Epstein’s New Mexico ranch. She spoke to Epstein over the phone and claimed that he informed her 20 to 25 “academically gifted” students would be flown in that weekend.
What Did Jeffrey Epstein Employees Say About Their Boss Maxwell’s Own Sex Trafficking Trial?
According to the defense, Kimberly Espinosa, a Maxwell assistant who worked in Epstein’s New York office, was the first trial witness to testify about unlawful sex acts for the prosecution. According to the defense, Espinosa characterized Maxwell as a victim rather than an accomplice to Epstein.
“I highly respected Ghislaine,” Espinosa avowed. “She was someone I greatly admired and who taught me a great deal.”
She also described Epstein, who had prior convictions for soliciting underage girls for sex when he died in prison while awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges in 2019, as being a giver” and “kind.”
It appears as though she considered him to be selfless only in financial terms.
“He was generous, and I always knew him to be donating to charities and just being a kind person,” Espinosa also added that Epstein “paid for a personal trainer” on her behalf and booked her “massages” as well!
This is how Maxwell and Epstein’s accusers claim they were harassed: by being assigned to give the older guy “massages.”
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Espinosa also said, “[I] attribute my career right now as an executive assistant to what I learned supporting Ghislaine.”
Who Are Illegal Acts Defense Witness Christine Espinosa?
She served as an assistant to Maxwell from 1996 until 2002. One of the first things she did was establish Epstein’s island in the United States Virgin Islands, Little St. James (or “Pedo Island,” Epstein Island, or “Little St. Jeff’s” based on who people ask), which included making extra palm trees and sand were shipped in to make the island’s scenery complete.
That’s great. The prosecution, on the other hand, didn’t miss a beat. When it was their turn to question Espinosa, they were able to zero in on a significant hole in her story regarding Maxwell and Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion and prosecution witness Jane.
The four witnesses the state called to testify about Maxwell and/or Epstein’s alleged abuse, however, claim they were abused at Maxwell’s London mansion or Epstein’s New Mexico ranch in addition to his Palm Beach home.
Palm Beach Abuse Blows Up In Defense’s Face
According to a report, Espinosa was specifically questioned by the defense about “Jane,” who claimed she was sexually assaulted by the notorious sex offender at his Palm Beach mansion, where she was paid to provide massages when she was only 14.
“I was abused pretty much every time that I would go over to his house, and it all started to seem the same after a while — whether it was just him or there were other women involved, or me and Jeffrey and Ghislaine, it all started to seem the same,” said Jane when testifying to jurors during her prior testimony.
According to Espinosa’s testimony, she believed that a young woman she saw “looked 18” while at Epstein’s office. At the time, when Jane’s mother informed her that “Jane was Jeffrey’s goddaughter.”
“I thought it was a loving relationship,” Espinosa testified under oath.
*Shudder in the jury panel.*
On Tuesday, the trial witness, who is using the stage name “Jane” to protect her 22-year acting career, described in graphic detail several of the encounters in the 1990s, suggesting that Maxwell was an active participant.
Methodical Cross-Examination Hurts Defense?
During a methodical cross-examination, criminal defense attorney Laura Menninger confronted the accuser Jane, with FBI records from 2019 and 2020, asking her whether she’d informed the government that her memory was hazy on whether Maxwell was there when Epstein assaulted her and if she’d ever sexually abused her, let alone engaged in sex trafficking.
Documents quoted her as stating that no abuse occurred during an outing to Epstein’s ranch.
However, the prosecutor discovered the area where this testimony failed. When it was their turn to cross-examine a witness, they only put one question to her.
- “You never went to Palm Beach, right?”
- “No,” Espinosa replied.
- “No further questions,” said the prosecutor.
At this time, without the additional information provided above, I would not have expected any. There have been no allegations that Epstein assaulted girls in his New York office during this period. Neither Espinosa nor Maxwell was working on Little St. James as it was being prepared for the financier and his rich buddies.
The torture that Jane claimed she was subjected to at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell, and under Maxwell’s watch occurred in Palm Beach, where Espinosa never worked for the notorious one-time couple.
According to the indictment, Victim-4 was paid hundreds of dollars in cash for her interactions with Epstein, during which he sexually assaulted her.
According to allegations, the victim also recruited other young females to provide sexualized massages on Epstein and Maxwell’s command. Maxwell called the victim from New York to arrange the massages on Epstein when he returned to Florida.
In addition, according to the indictment, Maxwell sent lingerie from New York to the victim’s house in Florida. Maxwell’s attorneys argue that she is innocent and was only charged with procuring underage girls because Epstein died.
Boss Babe Training And Sexual Abuse To Be Continued!
All the argument at this point proved was something that has long been established: Epstein and Maxwell worked hard to keep “the help.” Espinosa may have liked the lavish presents Epstein lavished on her and the boss babe training she received from Maxwell.
But she had little to contribute in terms of personal testimony that contradicted or validated anything the prosecution brought forth. We will continue to report on Judge Nathan Hale and any rulings describing celebrities, flights to the island, and Ghislaine Maxwell, as she sits near the witness stand for her jury trial.
