Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of sex trafficking a minor

The attorneys for Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Jeffery Epstein’s alleged accusers, issued a statement after a jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty Wednesday.

Attorney Sigrid McCawley called today’s verdict a “towering victory.”

Giuffre did not testify during the trial but was mentioned several times throughout government witness testimony.

Bobbi Sternheim, attorney for Ghislaine Maxwell, speaks outside federal court on December 29, in New York City.

Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell have already started working on her appeal, according to Bobbi Sternheim, one of Maxwell’s defense attorneys. 

Sternheim spoke briefly to reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday evening. 

A jury found Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minors between 1994 and 2004.

Maxwell, 60, was found guilty of five federal charges: sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy.

She was acquitted on the charge of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.

Maxwell now faces up to 65 years in prison. Judge Alison Nathan did not set a sentencing date.

CNN’s Laura Studley and Patrick Cornell contributed to this report. 

Sketch of Ghislaine Maxwell in court on Wednesday, December 29.

As the verdict was read, Ghislaine Maxwell showed no visible reaction.

Maxwell, 60, was found guilty of five federal charges: sex trafficking of a minor, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy.

Judge Alison Nathan did not set a sentencing date after reading the verdict. Maxwell still faces two pending perjury charges related to a 2016 civil deposition. 

After the jury was dismissed defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim asked the judge to set an order that Maxwell be permitted to receive a Covid-19 booster shot. Nathan said she would look into it. 

A jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minors. Prosecutors argued Maxwell and Epstein conspired to set up a scheme to lure young girls into sexual relationships with Epstein from 1994 to 2004 in New York, Florida, New Mexico and the US Virgin Islands.

Jennifer Rodgers, a former federal prosecutor, explained why she believes the prosecution did not go after additional perpetrators in the case.

“We’re in federal court, not in state court,” Rodgers said on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper.”

“So you can’t charge people with sexual abuse,” she continued. “The statute of limitations for that is long gone anyway.”

Rodgers went on to say that if prosecutors can go after more perpetrators they will.

“I think that they go where the evidence leads,” Rodgers said. “I don’t think anyone in SDNY or current DOJ is afraid of going after anyone in the world. So I think if the evidence leads there, they would go. There are just a lot of obstacles and no one who knows what happened, talking at least as far as we know. And a lot of time has gone by, so these possible state charges are likely gone because of statute of limitations issues.”

A jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls between 1994 and 2004.

They found her not guilty of enticement of an individual under the age of 17 to travel with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity which was related to accuser “Jane.”

Maxwell was, however, found guilty on transportation of an individual under the age of 17 with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity — the other charge related only to “Jane.”

Jane, one of the accusers who testified under a pseudonym, testified about her years-long relationship with Epstein and Maxwell in which she said she endured sexual abuse at times by both and in group scenarios with other adults. The indictment alleged that Maxwell enticed and transported “Jane” to New York from Florida for Epstein to sexually abuse her. “Jane” testified to more than one trip to New York between 1994 and 1997 when she was a minor during which she said Maxwell sometimes coordinated her travel with them to New York where she engaged with Epstein in sexualized massages in the massage room in his Manhattan mansion. “Jane” also testified that Maxwell groomed her and partook in a sexual encounter with “Jane” and Epstein at his Palm Beach home when she was 14.

Earlier this week, during deliberations, the jury sent the judge a note asking for definition of enticement.

The judge sent a note in response referring the jury to “enticement” discussed on page 21, lines 5 and 6, and page 33, lines 5 and 6, in the jury charge. He further wrote that entice means to “attract, induce or lure using hope or desire.”

Watch CNN’s Sonia Moghe explain this count in more detail:

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The case against Ghislaine Maxwell primarily relied on the testimony of four women who said they were sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein when they were under 18. The women alleged that Maxwell facilitated and sometimes participated in that abuse.

A jury found Maxwell, 60, guilty today on five of six counts related to her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls between 1994 and 2004. She was acquitted on the charge of enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.

Here’s what these woman said:

“Carolyn”

“Carolyn” testified that she was brought to Epstein’s Palm Beach when she was 14 years old around 2001. Carolyn, testifying by her first name only, said that she was paid hundreds of dollars each time she engaged in a sexualized massage with Epstein and recruited other young girls for him. 

Carolyn said Maxwell groped her naked body on one visit when she was 14, telling her she “had a great body for Epstein and his friends.” Maxwell and other Epstein employees would call Carolyn’s mother to set up appointments for her to massage Epstein, she testified. During cross-examination, defense attorneys spent considerable time suggesting Carolyn made inconsistent statements about her timeline.

“Jane”

“Jane,” testifying anonymously under a pseudonym, alleged a years-long relationship with Epstein and Maxwell in which she said she endured sexual abuse at times by both and in group scenarios with other adults. The indictment alleges that Maxwell enticed and transported “Jane” to New York from Florida for Epstein to sexually abuse her.

She also testified that Maxwell groomed her and partook in the first sexual encounter “Jane” had with Epstein at his Palm Beach home when she was 14.

“Kate”

“Kate,” testifying under a pseudonym, alleged that Maxwell introduced her to Epstein when she was 17 in London and facilitated “Kate’s” sexualized massages of Epstein for years during which she traveled to the US and Epstein’s island. “Kate” is not considered a minor victim in the charges because she was over the age of consent at the time of the alleged abuse, but jurors are still allowed to consider her testimony, Judge Alison Nathan ruled.

Annie Farmer

Annie Farmer, the only accuser to testify by her full name, testified that she was 16 years old when Maxwell massaged her naked chest at Epstein’s New Mexico ranch in 1996. At the ranch, Maxwell directed Farmer to massage Epstein’s bare feet, and at one point, Epstein climbed into Farmer’s bed engaging in unwanted cuddling, she testified. Farmer never saw Maxwell or Epstein again after that trip.

Under cross-examination, Farmer acknowledged Maxwell was not in the room when Epstein got into her bed.

Read more of the testimony here.

A jury just found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls between 1994 and 2004.

Maxwell, 60, faces up to 65 years in prison. 

The jury, which is made up of six women and six men, deliberated for about 40 hours over six days. 

Maxwell was found not guilty on count two: enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.

US Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York praised the women who testified against Ghislaine Maxwell, in released a statement.

“A unanimous jury has found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of one of the worst crimes imaginable – facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children. Crimes that she committed with her long-time partner and co-conspirator, Jeffrey Epstein,” Williams said.

The statement continued, “I also want to thank the career prosecutors of the Southern District of New York, who embraced the victims’ quest for justice and have worked tirelessly, day in and day out, to ensure that Maxwell was held accountable for her crimes. This Office will always stand with victims, will always follow the facts wherever they lead, and will always fight to ensure that no one, no matter how powerful and well connected, is above the law.”

Watch the US attorney’s video statement:

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in New York, 2005.

Ghislaine Maxwell was found guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls.

Here are the five counts that Maxwell was found guilty of:

Ghislaine Maxwell in New York, in 2013.

A jury found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of minor girls between 1994 and 2004. 

Maxwell, 60, had pleaded not guilty to six federal charges: sex trafficking of a minor, enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy. 

Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison. 

In this sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell sits in the courtroom on Wednesday, December 29, in New York.

Ghislaine Maxwell, who is facing six federal charges including sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy, could face up to 70 years in prison if convicted on all counts. She has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

The prosecution called 24 total witnesses over 10 days of testimony and the defense called 9 witnesses over two days.

Prosecutors said in opening statements Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein created a system of sexual abuse in which they lured underage girls into sexual relationships with Epstein using the ruse of a massage and cash payments. 

Her defense, argued that she is being scapegoated for Epstein’s actions and has attacked the memories and motivations of the women who say they were abused.

Maxwell declined to testify during the trial, telling Judge Alison Nathan when asked if she understood her rights, “Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. And so there is no need for me to testify.”

Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges, was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019 but died by suicide in prison a month later. Maxwell was arrested a year afterward.

Note: Two perjury charges against Maxwell related to a 2016 deposition in a civil case have been severed from this trial and are to be addressed in a separate trial later.  

A jury has reached a verdict Wednesday in the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and close associate of the wealthy convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The verdict will be read in court shortly.  

The jury, which is made up of six women and six men, deliberated for about 40 hours over six days.