Ghislaine Maxwell’s crucial role in the sexual abuse of girls, again in the spotlight

Days after Ghislaine Maxwell ask a judge to immediately release her from a 20-year prison sentence, the official release of grand jury transcripts from her sex trafficking case, in the context of the Epstein case, returned the focus to the victims whose accusations helped put her behind bars.

The release of the transcripts as part of the Justice Department’s continued release of investigative files on Maxwell and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exposed how an fbi agent He spoke to the grand jury members about Maxwell’s crucial role in it sexual abuse of girls and young women by Epstein for decades.

Maxwell, member of the british high society and a publishing heiress, was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 after four women told a federal jury in New York City how she and Epstein abused them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Epstein never went to trial. He was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges and committed suicide a month later in his cell in a Manhattan federal prison.

A little more than two weeks ago, as the Justice Department prepared to begin releasing what is commonly known as the Epstein files, Maxwell filed a habeas corpus petition, asking a federal judge to will free her alleging that “substantial new evidence” has emerged showing constitutional violations occurred at his trial.

Maxwell claimed that exculpatory information was withheld and that The witnesses lied in their testimony. He filed the petition on his own, without the assistance of an attorney.

This week, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer reprimanded Maxwell for failing to remove victims’ names and other identifying information from his court documents. He said that future presentations must be kept sealed and out of public view until they have been reviewed and edited to protect the victims’ identities.

Epstein’s accuser Danielle Bensky He said the release of the records has only heightened attention to Maxwell’s crimes among his victims. Bensky said he has had daily conversations with a few two dozen other victims that make it clear that Maxwell “is a criminal who was 1,000% involved in sexual acts.”

“I’ve heard things that They would make your blood run cold. Last night I had a conversation with a survivor who said that she was the puppeteer“Bensky said.

Bensky said she was sexually abused by Epstein two decades ago. She said Maxwell never personally abused her.

Transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that resulted in Maxwell’s indictment were released this week under the Epstein Records Transparency Act, a law enacted last month after months of public and political pressure.

The Justice Department has been periodically releasing documents after acknowledging that it would not meet the deadline set by Congress last Friday to release all records. He blamed the delay on laborious process of obscuring victims’ names and other identifying information.

On Wednesday, the department said it may need “a few more weeks” to deliver the whole set after suddenly discovering over a million potentially relevant documents. It was a surprising turn of events, after department officials suggested months ago that they had already accounted for the vast universe of Epstein-related materials.

Some of Epstein and Maxwell’s grand jury records were initially released with extensive redacted fragments: a 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY” was completely crossed out. Updated versions were released over the weekend.

An FBI agent’s jury testimony, describing interviews conducted with Epstein’s victims, foreshadowed trial testimony a year later from four women who described Maxwell’s role in his sexual abuse from 1994 to 2004.

The agent spoke of a woman who described meeting Maxwell and Epstein when I was 14 years old and was attending a summer arts camp in Michigan in 1994. Flight logs showed that Epstein and Maxwell they went to school who sponsored the camp because Epstein was a donor.

According to the agent, whose name was redacted from the transcript, the girl had a chance encounter with Epstein and Maxwell one day. After learning that the girl was from Palm Beach, Florida, Epstein mentioned that sometimes awarded scholarships to students and requested his telephone number, the agent said.

Once home, the girl visited Epstein’s estate with her mother for tea and the mother was impressed when Epstein said he provided scholarships, so much so that the mother said that Epstein was like a “godfather”said the agent.

The agent said that the girl began to go regularly to the farm while Epstein and Maxwell showered her with gifts and trips to the movies to gain her trust, and Epstein began paying for voice lessons and giving her money that he said she should give to her mother in financial trouble.

The agent said the girl thought her relationship with Epstein and Maxwell was strange, “but Maxwell normalized it for her. She was like a cool older sister and would make comments like, ‘this is what adults do.'”

Eventually, the officer testified, the girl saw Maxwell bare-chested in the pool. After she revealed that she hoped to be an actress and model, Epstein told her that he was best friends with the owner of Victoria’s Secret and that I would have to learn to feel comfortable in underwear and not be a prudesaid the agent.

Then, the agent said, the girl asked Epstein what he meant by that and The financier pulled her onto his lap and masturbated. After that, the agent added, the girl’s encounters with Epstein began to include sexual contact, particularly in your massage room.

Maxwell was sometimes there with other girls, the agent said. One of the girls began to massage Epstein and Maxwell joked with the girlssaid the agent.

“He grabbed the girl’s breasts and gave the girls instructions on what to do,” the agent said, relaying the girl’s account. Maxwell’s demeanor during the encounters was “very casual; he acted like this was normal,” the agent said.

The published testimony appeared to mirror testimony at Maxwell’s 2021 trial by a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane”.

At the trial, Jane said that Maxwell also participated in group sessions between multiple women and Epstein. which usually started with Epstein or Maxwell taking them all to a bedroom or massage room at the Palm Beach residence.

With information from the Associated Press