Choose upholds Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction

A trial decide has concluded there was sufficient evidence to convict Ghislaine Maxwell of intercourse trafficking

By LARRY NEUMEISTER Related Press

29 April 2022, 22:26

• 3 min read

NEW YORK -- A judge concluded Friday that there was enough proof to convict British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking ladies for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, but she also gave Maxwell a legal victory by concluding that three conspiracy counts charged the identical crime and she will only be sentenced for one.

U.S. District Decide Alison J. Nathan said in her written ruling that the jury’s responsible verdicts were “readily supported” by in depth witness testimony and documentary evidence at a one-month trial that concluded in December.

Lawyers for Maxwell had asked her to reject the decision on multiple grounds, including insufficient proof.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage ladies for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 2004.

Nathan stated that she'll only sentence Maxwell in late June on three of the 5 counts she was convicted on after concluding that two conspiracy counts were duplicates of the third.

“This authorized conclusion under no circumstances calls into query the factual findings made by the jury. Moderately, it underscores that the jury unanimously discovered — three times over — that the Defendant is guilty of conspiring with Epstein to entice, transport, and visitors underage ladies for sexual abuse,” Nathan wrote.

The discount of counts from five to a few was not expected to have a lot impact on the sentencing, when Maxwell could face a sentence starting from several years to decades in jail.

Lawyers for Maxwell did not return messages requesting remark. Prosecutors declined comment.

Earlier this month, the decide refused to toss out Maxwell's conviction after a juror disclosed to other jurors during jury deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a baby although he had not revealed that reality in response to questions on prior sex abuse posed in a written questionnaire.

The juror had stated he “skimmed manner too fast” by way of the questionnaire and did not deliberately give the incorrect reply to a question about intercourse abuse.

In refusing to toss the verdict, Nathan stated the juror’s failure to reveal his prior sexual abuse throughout the jury selection process was highly unlucky, however not deliberate.

The judge additionally concluded the juror “harbored no bias towards the defendant and could serve as a good and impartial juror.”

Maxwell, arrested in July 2020, has remained incarcerated. Epstein was 66 when he took his personal life in a federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a intercourse trafficking trial.