A jury determined Wednesday that Ghislaine Maxwell is guilty of five of six charges against her.
Jurors deliberated for days before delivering the verdict for Maxwell, a 59-year-old British socialite accused of being an accomplice to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
She faced six charges: one count of enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sex acts, one count of sex trafficking of a minor and three counts of conspiracy. These carried a possible prison sentence up to 70 years.
The jury found that she was guilty of five: one count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sex acts, one count of sex trafficking of a minor and three counts of conspiracy, according to NBC.
Maxwell pleaded not guilty to all six federal counts. However, she declined to testify.
“Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. And so there is no need for me to testify,” she said, according to CNN.
“She's being tried here for being with Jeffrey Epstein, and maybe that was the biggest mistake of her life, but it was not a crime,” Maxwell’s attorney Laura Menninger told the jury.
Prosecutor Alison Moe said Maxwell and Epstein were a couple who targeted young, vulnerable girls for sex trafficking. During Maxwell’s three-week trial, four women gave testimony that she facilitated sexual abuse from Epstein and sometimes participated in that abuse. They said the abuse occurred when they were younger than 18, from 1994 to 2004.
Jurors sent notes to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan regarding some of the testimony. They also asked Nathan just before 4 p.m. Wednesday if they could skip deliberations last Thursday and resume after the Christmas holiday on Monday, Dec. 27.
“Alright. You declined my invitation to deliberate tomorrow. We will resume Monday at 9 a.m.,” said the judge. “Same instructions. Please stay safe over the long weekend. I need all of you here and healthy on Monday.”
Maxwell was arrested in July 2020. At the time, she was also charged with two counts of perjury for allegedly lying under oath in 2016 depositions for a lawsuit regarding Epstein, who in 2019 was found dead in his jail cell. Those charges will be tried separately.
Related
Related
