Ghislaine Maxwell intercourse trafficking trial begins 2 years after Epstein’s suicide – Nationwide

Two years after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide behind bars, a jury was chosen Monday in New York Metropolis to find out a central query within the long-running intercourse trafficking case: Was his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s puppet or confederate?

Twelve jurors and 6 alternates will hear Maxwell’s case, beginning with opening statements anticipated later within the day. They have been picked from a pool of 40 to 60 potential jurors who made it by preliminary questioning.

Maxwell — who as soon as dated the financier — is accused of appearing as Epstein’s chief enabler, recruiting and grooming younger ladies for him to abuse. The fees towards her stem from the allegations of 4 ladies who say she and Epstein victimized them as teenagers from 1994 to 2004.

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Prosecutors say there’s proof Maxwell knew that the victims, together with a 14-year-old, have been under the age of consent and that she organized journey for some between Epstein’s houses, together with his property in Palm Seaside, Florida, his posh Manhattan townhouse and at different residences in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and London.

Epstein killed himself at a Manhattan federal lockup in August 2019, a month after his arrest on intercourse trafficking costs. Authorities charged Maxwell in July 2020, arresting her after monitoring her to a $1 million New Hampshire property the place she had been holed up in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

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Maxwell has pleaded not responsible and vehemently denies wrongdoing. The 59-year-old British socialite, jailed in Brooklyn since her arrest, has known as the claims towards her “absolute garbage.” Maxwell’s attorneys and household say she was Epstein’s pawn, now paying “a blood worth” to fulfill public want to see somebody held accountable for his crimes.

The rich, Oxford-educated Maxwell is the daughter of British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991 after falling off his yacht — named the Woman Ghislaine — close to the Canary Islands. Robert Maxwell, whose holdings on the time included the New York Day by day Information, was going through allegations that he had illegally looted his companies’ pension funds.

Ghislaine Maxwell holds U.S., British and French citizenships and was repeatedly denied bail within the run-up to her trial.