THE DECEASED Jeffrey Epstein's close friend Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested by the FBI on July 2, 2020, and has since been charged with six counts of sex trafficking and perjury.

Jury deliberations in Maxwell's trial began on Monday, November 29, 2021.

Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?

Ghislaine Maxwell was born in 1961, in Maisons Laffitte, France.

She is the youngest child of disgraced media tycoon and British publisher Robert Maxwell.

She moved to New York in 1991 after her father's death.

In 1992, she had a romantic relationship with American financier Jeffrey Epstein and remained closely associated with him for decades afterwards.

She was also allegedly pals with Lady Victoria Hervey and Prince Andrew.

There have been no allegations that Lady Victoria knew about any alleged wrongdoing.

LATEST ON GHISLAINE

Where is Ghislaine Maxwell now?

The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell began on Monday, November 29, 2021, in New York City.

Maxwell was branded a "dangerous predator" by Assistant US Attorney Lara Pomerantz, on day one of the trial.

"Between 1994 and 2004, the defendant sexually exploited young girls," Pomerantz said in court.

"She preyed on vulnerable young girls, manipulated them and served them up to be sexually abused… The defendant was trafficking kids for sex."

After weeks of witness testimony and prosecution, the trial went to jury deliberation on Monday, December 20, 2021.

As of Wednesday, December 22, the jury is still in deliberation.

The whereabouts of Maxwell – dubbed Epstein's pimp – were previously a mystery after Epstein, 66, died in his jail cell in August 2019.

Epstein died while he was awaiting trial on a slew of sex trafficking charges.

On July 2, 2020 Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire on Epstein-related charges.

The place of her arrest was thought to be close to the home of her alleged boyfriend Scott Borgerson.

The British socialite, 59, has been charged with six counts of sex trafficking and perjury in relation to her relationship with pedophile financier Epstein.

She first appeared in court on July 14, 2020, where she pleaded not guilty.

What is Ghislaine Maxwell's association with Epstein and what has she been accused of?

The 59-year-old has been accused of acting as a "madam" for Epstein, US court documents previously revealed.

Many of the women who testified during Maxwell's trial alleged they were taught to give Epstein "massages", which allegedly led to sex.

Epstein reportedly required sex "three times a day," according to Cosmopolitan.

A multitude of photos were released during trial depicting the relationship between Epstein and Maxwell, showing them to be affectionate with one another, with Maxwell being nude in some of the photographs.

Previously, almost 2,000 pages of a lawsuit were released in a defamation case involving Virginia Giuffre (then Roberts), who in 2015 claimed Prince Andrew slept with her three times.

Prince Andrew has denied the allegations.

Ms Giuffre alleges she was recruited by Maxwell in 1999 where she was introduced to Epstein.

Prosecutors allege that she had a history of giving powerful men access to women.

Another court document describes an alleged sexual encounter between Ms Giuffre, now 35, and Andrew in a bathtub.

It was raised by lawyers for Maxwell in an effort to show the former masseuse had not mentioned it before 2014 and was lying about it.

The document says the tub was “too small for a man of Prince Andrew’s size to enjoy a bath in let alone sex”.

Ms Giuffre claims she was encouraged "to have sexual relations” with Andrew in Maxwell's London flat.

A manuscript by Ms Giuffre, also released with the court papers, claims Epstein and Maxwell invited the Duke of York to meet her in the capital to help him get over the “fresh wounds still lingering on” after his divorce from Sarah Ferguson.

She claims she was "groomed by the two [of them] for his pleasure, including lessons in Epstein's preferences during oral sex".

Buckingham Palace strongly denied the allegation in 2015 saying "any suggestion of impropriety with underage minors" by the Duke was "categorically untrue".

"It is emphatically denied that the Duke of York had any form of sexual contact with Virginia Roberts. Any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation.

Prince Andrew added: "At no stage during the limited time I spent with [Epstein] did I see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction."

All the allegations about Prince Andrew were struck from the court record in 2015 as they were described by the judge as being "immaterial and impertinent".

However, in 2021, lawyers for Virginia Roberts served papers to the Duke as she opted to file a sexual assault lawsuit.

What has Maxwell said about the allegations?

At her hearing in 2021, Maxwell pleaded not guilty, simply stating: "I have not committed any crimes."

In a 2015 statement, Maxwell rejected allegations that she acted as a procurer for Epstein.

Maxwell's spokesperson said "the allegations made against Ghislaine Maxwell are untrue" and she "strongly denies allegations of an unsavoury nature, which have appeared in the British press and elsewhere, and reserves her right to seek redress at the repetition of such old defamatory claims".

Are Scott Borgerson and Ghislaine Maxwell married?

During a court hearing on July 15, 2021, it was revealed that Maxwell was secretly married.

The shocking revelation came as Epstein's so-called pimp pleaded not guilty via video link to charges related to his sex trafficking ring.

The anonymous marriage was disclosed by US Attorney Alison Moe, one of three prosecutors on the case, at the detention hearing on Tuesday, July 14.

She spoke about the lack of transparency in Maxwell's filings and asked who would co-sign her bond if she was given bail.

Ms Moe said: "In addition to failing to describe in any way the absence of proposed co-signers of a bond, the defendant also makes no mention whatsoever about the financial circumstances or assets of her spouse whose identity she declined to provide to Pretrial Services.

"There's no information about who will be co-signing this bond or their assets, and no details whatsoever."

Reports later confirmed that the mystery man was tech company CEO Scott Borgerson.

Borgerson, the boss of CargoMetrics, is believed to be worth around $100million.

He allegedly married Maxwell in 2016, but the British socialite allegedly tried to file for a divorce before her arrest so her husband wouldn’t suffer from "being associated with her".

The tech CEO was previously linked to the $1million New Hampshire mansion where Maxwell was snared by the FBI.

He has always denied their relationship, saying they are just old friends.

What was revealed in the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary?

The Dispatches programme The Prince And The Paedophile in October 2019 examined the relationship between Prince Andrew and Epstein.

Reporter Cathy Newman looked at Epstein's British connections from Prince Andrew to Ghislaine.

Private investigator Mike Fisten previously claimed that Epstein had 13 telephone numbers to contact the Queen's second son on.

A telephone contact book was found in Epstein's Palm Beach home that is said to have included a line for the Duke of York at Buckingham Palace.

Fisten said: "You could take for instance, if looking at the section in London, you could pick out, the Duke of York, which is Prince Andrew. And when you look at that, under Duke of York it shows Buckingham Palace, London.

"He has thirteen phone number to contact the Duke. And [these numbers went everywhere], Wood Farm, Sunninghill Wood Farm, Sunninghill numbers, the Palace, his home number, his home email.

"He even had a phone number to his modem, I guess to call into his modem."

The programme also looks at 1,200 pages of documents about Epstein's behaviour that were made public in a courtroom in Manhattan.

What was the verdict from the Ghislaine Maxwell trial?

Jurors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial began deliberating on Monday afternoon, December 20, following approximately six hours of closing arguments and continued on Tuesday, December 21.

The jury obtained the case just minutes before 5pm after two prosecutors and a defense lawyer made their closing arguments.

It came after 12 days of testimony.

The jury asked to continue to deliberate from 9am to 4.30pm on Wednesday, December 22.

The jury requested not to deliberate on Thursday, December 23.

Instead, they will reconvene on Monday.

Judge Nathan told the jurors in the Ghislaine Maxwell case they will resume at 9am on Monday, December 27.

Source: Read Full Article