The Ghislaine Maxwell trial began with a sentence that attempted to distill the complex case which spans decades and jurisdictions, and pierces the normally secretive world of America’s ultra wealthy elite.
“I want to tell you about a young girl named Jane,” prosecutor Lara Pomerantz told the jury of five men and seven women.
The US federal government’s case against Ms Maxwell, 59, centres around her decades-long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. It alleges she operated as his enabler in luring vulnerable teenage girls with promises of scholarships, attention and financial assistance for their families, and coerced them into becoming objects for his sexual gratification.
This later expanded to a “pyramid scheme of abuse”, according to prosecutors, in which young girls already in Epstein’s orbit would offer to recruit classmates and friends with the promise of easy money.
Ms Maxwell faces six charges: one each of enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking of a minor, and three counts of conspiracy related to the other counts.
She has denied all the charges. Epstein died at age 66 while awaiting trial.
Day one: A tale of two opening arguments
After delays over jury selection and availability in the morning, opening arguments began in the afternoon with p rosecutor Lara Pomerantz portraying Ms Maxwell as a predator who manipulated young girls and “served them up to be sexually abused”.
“They made these girls feel seen,” she said, seemingly adopting the youthful language of the teenagers she was describing.
From behind a plastic box in the middle of the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan, Ms Pomerantz thrust out an arm as she pointed Ms Maxwell out to the jury.
The prosecution’s strategy soon became apparent, as Ms Pomerantz repeated Epstein’s name time and again, and used the phrase “the defendant and Epstein” more than a dozen more times.
Epstein has become an emblem of evil in the years since his arrest on underage sex abuse and trafficking charges. He and Ms Maxwell, the “older, purportedly respectable woman”, were “partners in crime”, equally culpable in the prosecution’s telling for the unspeakable crimes that had allegedly been committed.
Even though Ms Maxwell was the only individual on trial, she would serve as Epstein’s proxy, after many saw the 66-year-old’s suicide in prison while awaiting trial as another escape from justice.
Defence attorney Bobbi Sternheim opened with fire and brimstone, using a biblical reference to Adam and Eve to argue that women had been blamed for the evils of men ever since the Garden of Eden.
“The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for things that Jeffrey Epstein did, but she is not Jeffrey Epstein,” Ms Sternheim said.
Ms Sternheim also made a puzzling reference to James Bond, telling the court of Epstein: “In many regards, he was like a 21st-century James Bond. His mystery has stirred interest.”
She made a point of saying the four defence lawyers, who are being paid as much as $7m, are proud to represent the much-maligned 59-year-old.
The case would hinge on three things; Memory, manipulation and money.
Ms Sternheim had her own story to tell about a young girl named Jane, who she revealed was a successful actor now in her early 40s who had appeared in soap operas, movies, and reality TV shows.
“She is a consummate actress. She is a pro at playing roles. And as her scripts and characters change, so has her story that you will hear in this courtroom,” Ms Sternheim said.
She went on to attack the credibility of the other three accusers, Annie Farmer, and two others who like Jane would testify under the pseudonyms Kate and Carolyn.
Ms Sternheim claimed each had changed their story over the years under duress from the FBI or in the hope of securing a payout from a victim’s fund set up by Epstein’s estate after he died.
She listed the exact dollar figure payouts the women had received, ranging from $1.5 million to $5m, before legal fees were factored in.
Towards the end of the day, the prosecution called its first witness – Epstein’s longtime personal pilot Larry Visoski.
Day two: The pilot and the paedophile
Mr Visoski resumed his testimony on Tuesday morning, telling of flying Epstein and a coterie of famous individuals all over the globe in two of Epstein’s personal private jets, a Gulfstream G550, and a Boeing 727.
Former presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, disgraced actor Kevin Spacey and Prince Andrew all flew aboard the so-called Lolita Express, a nickname given to the larger Boeing plane purchased by Epstein in 2000, according the pilot’s testimony.
As well as being a pilot, Mr Visoski enjoyed a 25-year friendship with Epstein and offered a revealing glimpse inside the late paedophile’s homes and routines.
Epstein was constantly on the move between mansions in New York, Palm Beach, New Mexico, his private island in the US Virgin Islands, Little Saint James, and his apartment in Paris, the pilot said.
Mr Visoski took the jurors on a tour of each of Epstein’s opulent homes, describing in detail the layouts, features and character of each based on the numerous times he had stayed in them over the years, and the fact he had installed home entertainment systems and movie theaters in each.
Mr Visoski also flew helicopters for Epstein. When bringing Epstein and guests to the Virgin Islands, he would fly the jet into the main island of St Thomas and then transport the passengers the roughly 18 kms by helicopter, landing on a private helipad on the island. Ms Maxwell would also fly the helicopter on occasion, he said.
Mr Visoski also remembered flying Jane, who he said appeared to be a “mature woman” with “piercing blue powder eyes”.
He also denied ever seeing any sexual impropriety either on flights or in Epstein’s homes. As the father of two girls who met and spent time with Epstein and Ms Maxwell, he said he would have quit his job and made sure his daughters never saw them again had he been aware of the abuse of minors.
Day two afternoon session: ‘Jane’ takes the stand
Striding confidently to the witness box on Tuesday afternoon, Jane removed her mask only after Judge Alison Nathan had ordered the court sketchers they were not to draw her likeness.
Her testimony began with her meeting Epstein and Ms Maxwell aged 14 at the Interlochin Center for the Arts, a summer school in Michigan for gifted musicians and actors.
Jane said Epstein told her he was a major donor to the school that gave out scholarships to gifted arts students.
“He seemed very interested to know what I thought about the camp, what my favourite classes were.”
When they heard Jane was also from Palm Beach Florida, where Epstein owned a waterfront mansion, he asked for her mother’s phone number.
Jane told how she was grieving the death of her father, a renowned composer, seven months earlier. The death had forced the family to sell its home, and she was sleeping in a bed with her mother in a pool house at a friend’s house at the time she met Epstein.
On her first few visits she was dazzled by the palatial mansion, and says Epstein would boast about his money and connections.
Ms Maxwell was a quirky, sisterly figure, who occasionally shocked Jane by bathing topless and telling her vulgar stories, she said.
Jane testified that the sexual abuse first took place when she was alone with Epstein, and later graduated to involve Ms Maxwell, and later on other, older women.
She said she was flown in Epstein’s private jet to New York and Santa Fe, where she was forced to perform sadomaschistic sex acts on Epstein.
When prosecutor Alison Moe asked how the abuse had affected her, she said: “How do you navigate a healthy relationship with a broken compass? I didn’t even understand what real love is supposed to look like.”
Jane’s marathon cross-examination from Laura Menninger, which alleged she had repeatedly changed her story, and was motivated by financial gain, began late on Tuesday afternoon.
Day three: Defense attorneys attempt to punch holes in Jane’s testimony, and reveal Mar-a-Lago meeting with Trump
Jane’s recollections of Ms Maxwell’s involvement in her sexual abuse came under an hours-long attack during aggressive cross-examination from Ms Menninger on Wednesday.
Ms Menninger repeatedly confronted Jane with statements she had made to the FBI over more than 10 interviews between 2019 and 2021, drilling down into alleged inconsistencies between the interviews and Jane’s testimony in court.
The experienced defence attorney said law enforcement notes of conversations suggested Jane was uncertain over whether Ms Maxwell had actually touched or kissed her, contrasting them to the vivid account she gave the jury of the socialite’s alleged participation in sexualised massages and abuse with Epstein.
The testimony became a stop-start affair as Ms Moe, for the prosecution, made a string of objections. She claimed the defence was deliberately trying to confuse Jane with a vague line of questioning that didn’t clearly state whether she was being asked to recall a memory or what she had told the FBI.
Jane remained largely composed, delivering repeated “I don’t recall” responses to the defense’s questioning.
“Memory is not linear,” Jane added.
Ms Menninger sought to portray her courtroom testimony as yet another acting role in Jane’s career.
She asked Jane about her role on a long-running television soap opera, and described the many plot lines the character had been involved in, including being stalked by a serial killer, working as a prostitute and taking down a Mexican drug cartel.
When the prosecution was able to question Jane again, Ms Moe asked her if she was “acting here today”.
Recalling her first interview with the FBI, Jane said it had been difficult to tell a roomful of strangers “the most shameful, deepest secrets that I’ve been carrying around with me my whole life”.
She broke down as she told how she had gradually become more comfortable recounting her story, and began to feel like she could trust government investigators.
“This is something that I have been running from my entire life. I’m just tired of it,” she said.
Ms Menninger had asked Jane about a trip she took with Epstein to Mar-a-Lago when she was 14 years old.
Ms Meninger continued: “He took you in a dark green car, and you met Donald Trump, correct?”
“Yes,” Jane replied.
Ms Menninger asked if Jane could recall being on Epstein’s private planes with a “number of individuals”, including Prince Andrew, which Jane said was accurate.
She said she also met Epstein’s brother Mark Epstein and his former personal chef, Los Angeles-based celebrity chef Adam Perry Lang, on flights on his private jets.
Jane added that she was never ordered to have sex with Epstein’s associates or to recruit other girls.
Day four: Epstein’s Palm Beach housekeeper says Maxwell was ‘the lady of the house’
Juan Alessi, who helped run Epstein’s Palm Beach estate from 1991 to 2002, took the stand on Thursday and made a series of stunning revelations about the inner workings of the waterfront mansion at 358 El Brillo Way.
Mr Alessi was a live-in housekeeper who also acted as a cleaner, chef, driver and handyman at the property.
He initially enjoyed a cordial relationship with Epstein, but says his wealthy boss grew more distant over the years, and handed over day-to-day running of the household to Ms Maxwell.
He told the jury of the “degrading” working conditions imposed on staff by the “lady of the house”.
She would sometimes give staff only a couple of hours notice that she and Epstein would be visiting, sending them into a panic as they would begin the “extensive preparation” stipulated in a 58-page household manual distributed to staff.
The tasks included making sure Epstein’s fleet of luxury vehicles were stocked with “100-dollar bills in every car”.
Under a section titled “Grooming and guest relations”, they were told: “See nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, except to answer a question directed to you.”
Mr Alessi said the 58-page booklet was “a kind of warning that I was supposed to be blind, deaf and dumb, to say nothing of their lives”.
Staff were told not to look at Epstein when they spoke to him.
Under questioning from prosecutor Maurene Comey, Alessi told how Epstein would receive three massages a day from different women - in the morning, afternoon and late at night.
He would often find sex toys wile cleaning up after Epstein’s massages.
“I remember finding a large dildo,” Mr Alessi told the court. “It looked like a huge man’s penis with two heads.”
He wouldwash the sex toys and place them in a basket which also contained pornographic tapes and a leather black costume.
Mr Alessi was also able to corroborate key parts of the testimony heard earlier in the trial from the witness known as Jane.
He testified that he picked up Jane from outside her school and home and drove her to the Palm Beach estate.
This took place sometime around 1994 he said, and Jane would have been 14 years old.
Day five: Epstein had photos of Maxwell removed before entertaining female guests
Cross examination of Juan Alessi, who worked full-time as a housekeeper at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion from 1991 to 2002, continued in Ms Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial on Friday.
Defence attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca asked Mr Alessi about an order given by Epstein to remove all photos of Ms Maxwell before he hosted other female guests.
“You never told Ms Maxwell about removing the other pictures?” asked Mr Pagliuca. “It was a secret between you and Mr Epstein.”
“It was not a secret, it was a mandate,” Mr Alessi replied, becoming increasingly agitated.
“(Epstein) never shared any of his personal life with me … he never suggested, implied anything.”
He was then asked why he thought he was told to take the pictures down.
“I have no idea,” Mr Alessi responded.
Mr Alessi said he would have been told to take down the pictures about three or four times.
Mr Pagliuca tried to point out alleged inconsistencies between Mr Alessi’s testimony in court and previous sworn statements in civil cases involving Epstein.
Citing a deposition taken in 2016, Mr Pagliuca pointed out Mr Alessi had stated he had first met Jane in much later than 1994.
Mr Alessi said he had confused Jane with another young girl who had visited the property.
Mr Pagliuca went on to ask about Ms Maxwell’s fondness for photography.
“She was a good photographer and she had a fantastic setup of cameras and lenses,” he said, adding her photography was on display around the house.
“She took pictures of everything.”
There were also photos of Epstein and Maxwell with Pope John Paul II, Fidel Castro and Bill Clinton on display around the property, he said.
Mr Pagliuca was admonished by Judge Nathan after referring to the witness known as Jane by her real name.
Judge Nathan ordered that the reference be struck from the court record and admonished Mr Pagliuca.
“You must carefully abide by my ruling,” she said, before calling both sets of lawyers into a sidebar.
Late on Friday, Epstein’s infamous massage table was introduced into evidence.
The green table, confiscated by law enforcement from Epstein’s mansion in 2005, was brought into the courtroom and shown to the jury.
The jury were earlier shown a police video of a raid on the Palm Beach property on 20 October 2005.
Day six: Second accuser ‘Kate’ describes being told to dress in schoolgirl outfit to give Epstein sexualised massages
A second accuser began her testimony on Monday, and described being told by Ms Maxwell to dress in a schoolgirl’s outfit before giving Epstein a massage at his Palm Beach residence.
The now 44-year-old British woman told the court she had first given sexual massages to Epstein at the age of 17 at Ms Maxwell’s townhome in Belgravia, London.
Testifying under the pseudonym “Kate”, the woman said on a later trip to Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion she found a schoolgirl’s uniform had been left on a bed in her room consisting of a short white pleated-skirt, shirt, underwear and socks.
She said she asked Ms Maxwell “what was happening with the clothes in my room”.
“And she said, ‘I thought it would be good for you to take Jeffrey his tea in these clothes’.”
“I didn’t know how to say no,” Kate said.
“She told me I was such a good girl, and that I was one of his favourites.”
Kate said she continued to see Epstein into her 30s, and that she was fearful of “disengaging” because of how well-connected he and Ms Maxwell were.
“She seemed to know everybody and she told me she was friends with Prince Andrew, friends with Donald Trump, friends with lots of famous people and their names would sometimes just come up.”
Kate was over the age of consent in Britain at the time she met Epstein, and US district judge Alison Nathan instructed the jury before her testimony that any sexual encounters she described were not “illegal sex acts”.
Prosecutors plan to use Kate’s testimony to corroborate patterns in Epstein’s and Ms Maxwell’s behaviour, by showing that the older socialite would “groom” them for abuse.
Under questioning from US assistant attorney Lara Pomerantz, Kate recalled meeting Ms Maxwell aged about 17 on a trip to Paris with her boyfriend at the time, who was in his mid-30s.
Kate testified that Ms Maxwell was “sophisticated and elegant”, and asked her a lot of questions about her life.
She went to Ms Maxwell’s townhouse in the upmarket London suburb of Belgravia a few weeks later for tea.
Kate testified that she felt like she had found a “new connection that could be really meaningful to me”.
“She told me lots of amazing things about her boyfriend, she said that he was a philanthropist and that he liked to help young people and that at some point it would be really wonderful for me to meet him.
A few weeks later, Ms Maxwell called her again to say Epstein was in town and she should come back to her home.
After her initial meeting with Epstein, Kate testified that she was called back to the property a few weeks later when she was told a massage therapist had cancelled an appointment.
“She led me up the stairs,” Kate said, and into a dimly lit room with a massage table and towels where Epstein was waiting. He took off his robe, and was naked, as she entered.
Ms Maxwell handed her some massage oil and closed the door, leaving the two of them alone, Kate said.
She said Epstein initiated sexual contact, as he would on every occasion she gave him a massage.
Afterwards, Ms Maxwell asked her how it went and if she had fun.
“She seemed very excited and was happy.”
Kate said she returned again to the Maxwell property a few weeks later where she again gave Epstein a sexualised massage.
“Afterwards she said, ‘Did you have fun, you are such a good girl, he obviously likes you a lot’. She sounded really pleased, and I was pleased that she was pleased.”
Over the next few years Kate travelled to Epstein’s in Palm Beach and his island in the US Virgin Islands “sporadically”.
Kate said Ms Maxwell told her that Epstein was “demanding” and “needed sex about three times a day”.
When Ms Maxwell discussed sex with her it was “almost like a schoolgirl”.
“I almost felt like she was talking like she was younger than me which was odd. Everything was silly, everything was very exciting, everything seemed to be like a fun, silly joke.”
She told how she was given a black Prada handbag on her 18th birthday “from Ghislaine and Jeffrey”.
Kate said Ms Maxwell confided in her about her wealth, saying as well as the London townhouse she also owned a property in New York, and “Jeffrey got it for her”.
Kate said she continued to visit Epstein even after losing contact with Ms Maxwell, and saw him as many as five times a year into her 30s.
The sexual contact stopped in her early 30s after she had her first child, she said.
“I was fearful of disengaging because I understood how connected they both were.”
Kate told Ms Pomerantz she had abused cocaine, sleeping pills and alcohol at the time she knew Epstein, but that it hadn’t affected her memory.
“The memories I have of significant events in my life have never changed.”
She received a $3.25 million payout from the Epstein compensation fund, some of which went towards legal fees.
Under cross-examination from Bobbi Sternheim, Kate said she had never taken drugs around Epstein as it was forbidden.
Kate agreed she had continued to correspond with Epstein even after his imprisonment for underage sex offences in Florida in the late 2000s, signing off an email “best love always, Kate”.
Day seven: Third accuser says Maxwell would inspect her body for ‘Epstein and friends’
On Tuesday, a third accuser testified under her first name Carolyn.
She testified that she gave Epstein more than 100 sexualised massages at the Palm Beach estate beginning when she was about 14 after being introduced to him through Virginia Roberts-Giuffre.
On one occasion Carolyn testified she was groped by Ms Maxwell in the massage room at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion.
“She came in and felt my boobs, my hips and my buttocks, and said that ... I had a great body for Mr Epstein and his friends. She said that I had a great body type.”
Carolyn told the court she had endured an abusive and dysfunctional childhood; her mother was an alcoholic and she had been sexually abused by her grandfather from the age of four.
She said she was introduced to Epstein through Ms Roberts-Giuffre, who suggested Carolyn could make easy money from an older male friend of hers.
Carolyn said Ms Roberts-Giuffre dressed her “provocatively” and drove them to her first visit to the Palm Beach mansion.
She said Ms Roberts-Giuffre, who was about 18, taught her how to prepare the massage table and oils, and showed her how Epstein liked to be massaged.
She said she witnessed Epstein and Ms Roberts-Giuffre in a sex act during the first massage, and she was paid $300 in hundred dollar bills.
After the first visit, she said Ms Maxwell arranged for her to come to Epstein’s Palm Beach estate alone by calling her, her boyfriend or her mother.
“Maxwell would call and set up the appointment times,” she said.
Ms Maxwell had wanted to take her to Epstein’s private island, but Carolyn told her she was only 14 and there was “no way in hell” her mother would let her travel overseas.
Carolyn said she confided in Ms Maxwell and Epstein about the abuse she had suffered as a toddler.
Prosecutors have previously said the “partners in crime” deliberately targeted girls from broken homes.
As well as money she said she was given gifts of Victoria Secret lingerie, tickets to see the band Incubus and a copy of “a massage book for dummies” as she wanted to become a massage therapist.
She said Epstein asked her to recruit other young girls to give him sexualised massages.
“He asked me if I had any friends that were my age or younger, and I told him that I didn’t hang out with younger people but I did have some friends that I could ask.”
Carolyn said when she brought a friend to Epstein’s house she was paid $600, and her friend received $300.
“Why did you get extra?” prosecutor Ms Comey asked.
“Because I brought a friend with me,” she replied.
On another occasion, she testified she was photographed naked by another Epstein assistant Sarah Kellen. She was paid $500-$600 for the photos, she said.
Carolyn said she used the money to buy drugs and alcohol, and became addicted to opioids and cocaine.
In cross examination, Jeffrey Pagliuca questioned Carolyn about a 2009 civil lawsuit in which she sued Epstein and his former assistant Ms Kellen.
She said she hadn’t read the complaint before her lawyers filed it, and had trouble recalling sitting for a sworn deposition.
Mr Pagliuca also asked Carolyn about a 2007 FBI interview where she hadn’t referred to Ms Maxwell. She replied that she had not been asked about Ms Maxwell in the 2007 interview.
Carolyn also conceded she had told the FBI that it was Epstein who had arranged her second visit to the Palm Beach residence.
“A lot of it runs together because I have gone there so many times,” she said.
Carolyn said she had received a payout of between $1m and $3m from a victim compensation fund set up by Epstein’s estate.
After the jury had been dismissed for the day, prosecutors told Judge Alison Nathan they intended to wrap up their case by the end of the week.
The case was originally set to last for six weeks, and this would significantly shorten the length of the trial.
