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Ghislaine Maxwell: Confidante of Jeffrey Epstein in court

2021-11-30T12:17:47.381Z


For the prosecutor it is clear: Ghislaine Maxwell played a major role in Jeffrey Epstein's abuse network. What is the defense saying? Observations by SPIEGEL reporter Marc Pitzke, who is at the trial.


Read the video transcript here

It's about serious sexual offenses: The abuse trial against Ghislaine Maxwell has begun in New York with great public interest.

The 59-year-old is accused of assisting convicted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein in abusing underage girls.

Marc Pitzke, DER SPIEGEL


»The public prosecutor explained in a very calm voice, very sober and factual, how they wanted to prove that Ghislaine Maxwell was very closely linked to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. She. She rarely named Ghislaine Maxwell alone, without the name Epstein. So she wanted to show right from the start that she was his closest confidante. She said: The woman knew everything. She ran his business, she managed his estate, and she managed his sexual offenses. To put it that way. "

Jeffrey Epstein was a well-connected multimillionaire accused of abusing dozens of underage women. In 2008, Epstein was sentenced to a comparatively mild sentence for pimping and sexually abusing minors. He was arrested again in July 2019. A month later he was found dead in his prison cell. An investigation concluded that Epstein committed suicide. His longtime girlfriend and partner Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in 2020.

Marc Pitzke, DER SPIEGEL


»Ghislaine Maxwell was in the dock and took a very active part in the fact that she repeatedly passed notes and small tips to her lawyers.

She laughed, she greeted acquaintances, she was well dressed in a cream-colored turtleneck and black trousers.

Well, it wasn't anything she'd said from prison, that she was so bad, that she was really emaciated, that she didn't get anything to eat, nothing of that to be seen here. "

Suspected crimes were tried in court in various Epstein properties between 1994 and 2004. The public prosecutor's office relies on four main witnesses.

Marc Pitzke, DER SPIEGEL


»They are all supposed to testify here what happened to them, how Ghislaine Maxwell approached them, how Ghislaine Maxwell then introduced them to Epstein and then slowly the sexual behavior that was going on in these houses , normalized.

This is called grooming, the fact that the victims are used to things that are actually criminal offenses and that are also described in relatively detail here in the courtroom.

It was a bit shocking to read it again, even if you had heard it all before in connection with Epstein two years ago. "

In her opening speech, Maxwell's defense cast doubt on the credibility of the witnesses.

Marc Pitzke, DER SPIEGEL


»You said that Ghislaine Maxwell was used as a scapegoat for the punishments or the alleged punishments of Jeffrey Epstein, that she knew nothing about all of this, that women were always used as scapegoats for men.

This is the direction in which the defense strategy goes.

How it all ends cannot be predicted at all.

It is also not known whether Ghislaine Maxwell will testify herself. "

The trial against the 59-year-old is estimated to take six weeks.

(Video)

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2021-11-30

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