A jury has resumed deliberations at the sex trafficking trial of British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.
The jury entered its second full day of considering the fate of Maxwell after hearing from witnesses and seeing evidence for three weeks as prosecutors tried to prove that Maxwell was the crucial enabler of financier Jeffrey Epstein’s proclivity to sexually abuse teenage girls.
Maxwell, 59, was arrested in July 2020 on charges she groomed girls as young as 14 to think it was acceptable and normal for them to engage in sexualised massages with Epstein, her onetime boyfriend and eventual close friend and employer, in return for 100 US dollar bills.
Prosecutors said she sometimes joined in the abuse between 1994 and 2004 after recruiting girls with promises that Epstein’s wealth and connections to powerful people could fund and enable their dreams. Often, the girls came from financially strapped families living in desperate or strained circumstances, the government said.
On Tuesday, the jury signalled that a verdict was not imminent when it asked to finish deliberating on Wednesday at 4.30pm. The judge has told jurors that they can deliberate on Thursday as well, if they wish.
They also requested and received transcripts of the testimony of three of the four women who alleged that they were abused by Epstein with help from Maxwell when they were teenagers. Some of the women testified that the sexual abuse they endured escalated over time.
Defence lawyers contend that Maxwell is being prosecuted as a scapegoat because sex trafficking charges brought against Epstein dissolved after his suicide in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail a month after his arrest.
Maxwell was arrested a year later and has remained behind bars ever since as Judge Alison J. Nathan repeatedly denied bail requests, even after defence lawyers offered to secure it with a 28.5 million US dollar (£21.4 million) pledge and around-the-clock armed guards to ensure Maxwell did not flee.
