Ghislaine Maxwell was Jeffrey Epstein’s short term girlfriend but long time associate and had been under investigation for aiding him with the recruitment of minors. She has been explicitly named in multiple women’s lawsuits that have been abused by Epstein.
Before August 2019, Epstein was charged with multiple charges considering he ran a sex trafficking ring where he paid girls as young as 14 years to have sex with him in his home at the Upper East Side, Santa fe Ranch, London residence, and Palm Beach. He also worked with associates, like Maxwell, to manipulate girls to his houses, also while paying some of his victims to lure other girls to fall prey as well.
After Epstein allegedly killed himself, public interest sparked and the pressure was on to find out who was assisting him and sweeping all of his actions under the rug. While at first, she got away with denying any wrongdoing and calling the women naming her; “liars”, she was eventually arrested Thursday morning, July 2nd 2020, and charged with six counts in connection with an ongoing investigation into Epstein’s accomplices.
Those six counts include charges of enticement and conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transportation and conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and two counts of perjury, all based on the federal indictment unsealed Thursday.
Also in the indictment, it is identified that Maxwell was the main recruiter of the victims. She would meet a girl, take interest in her and her life, take her shopping or to the movies, and make her feel special. Then, after making the girls comfortable enough around her, she would begin talking to them about sexual topics and undressing in front of them, and then lure them to give Epstein massages; where they were either partially or fully nude. These massages would usually develop into forced sexual encounters, where Epstein would basically rape the girls.
Federal prosecutors in New York are afraid to face the legal hurdle which consists of Epstein signing a non-prosecution agreement in Florida, 2007, that seems to have immunized his accomplices. While Maxwell wasn’t a part of the four person list of accomplices, the document did say “including, but not limited to”, which her lawyers might argue that she’s included in.
As for her perjury charges, in 2016 as part of a deposition in a civil litigation, Maxwell denied ever giving anyone from the minors a massage and said that she was unaware of Epstein having any sexual relations with anyone other than herself while they were together. Also, when she was asked about Epstein’s “scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages,” she replied with “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
