Judge upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s intercourse trafficking conviction

A trial judge has concluded there was enough evidence to convict Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min read

NEW YORK -- A judge concluded Friday that there was sufficient evidence to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but she additionally gave Maxwell a authorized victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the identical crime and she can solely be sentenced for one.

U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan stated in her written ruling that the jury’s guilty verdicts had been “readily supported” by extensive witness testimony and documentary proof at a one-month trial that concluded in December.

Attorneys for Maxwell had requested her to reject the decision on a number of grounds, including inadequate evidence.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage women for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 2004.

Nathan said that she'll only sentence Maxwell in late June on three of the 5 counts she was convicted on after concluding that two conspiracy counts had been duplicates of the third.

“This legal conclusion under no circumstances calls into question the factual findings made by the jury. Quite, it underscores that the jury unanimously discovered — 3 times over — that the Defendant is responsible of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and visitors underage girls for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.

The reduction of counts from five to 3 was not anticipated to have a lot impact on the sentencing, when Maxwell may face a sentence starting from a number of years to decades in jail.

Lawyers for Maxwell did not return messages requesting remark. Prosecutors declined remark.

Earlier this month, the choose refused to toss out Maxwell's conviction after a juror disclosed to other jurors during jury deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a baby despite the fact that he had not revealed that truth in response to questions on prior intercourse abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had said he “skimmed means too quick” by means of the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the wrong reply to a question about sex abuse.

In refusing to toss the verdict, Nathan mentioned the juror’s failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse through the jury selection course of was extremely unlucky, but not deliberate.

The judge additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and will function a fair and impartial juror.”

Maxwell, arrested in July 2020, has remained incarcerated. Epstein was 66 when he took his own life in a federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a intercourse trafficking trial.