By Sarah Fitzpatrick, Lisa Cavazuti and Didi Martinez - NBC News
Ghislaine Maxwell, a former collaborator and partner of Jeoffrey Epstein, said in a 2016 affidavit that a woman's account of having a sexual encounter with British Prince Andrew inside a bathtub at home could not be true because "it was too small, "according to a
transcript of his court statements released
Thursday.
Maxwell dodged
questions about whether Prince Andrew ever had sex with Virginia Roberts Giuffre
, but insisted it never happened inside their London home.
"His whole ridiculous and absurd story of what happened in my house is an obvious lie," Maxwell said, according to the transcript, which is more than 400 pages long.
"The bathtub is too small for any type of activity," he added.
In previous interviews with NBC News and other outlets,
Giuffre claimed that she participated in a sexual encounter with Prince Andrew at Maxwell's home
, which began in the bathroom and moved into a bedroom.
[The disastrous interview in which Prince Andrew tries to explain his friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein]
The prince's representatives declined to comment, although he had previously denied the allegations and
said he does not recall meeting Giuffre
.
He also suggested that a photograph showing the two of them together may have been tampered with.
New York federal prosecutors said in March that Prince Andrew has "closed the door" to cooperating in the investigation into the sex trafficking ring of Epstein, who committed suicide in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial.
Representatives for Maxwell did not respond to a request for comment.
This was the role of Ghislaine Maxwell in Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse and child trafficking network
July 3, 202001: 44
The deposition is part of the documents that Maxwell, who is in prison on charges of helping Epstein sexually abuse girls, and who had long struggled not to be released.
The pages are also part of a defamation lawsuit filed against Maxwell in 2015 by
Giuffre, who alleged that Epstein sexually abused her and that Maxwell and Epstein ordered her to have sex with other men between 2000 and 2002
.
[A millionaire falls from grace and his employees tell the true story of their 'island of pedophilia']
The case, which Giuffre brought after Maxwell accused her of lying, was finally resolved.
During two days of interviews with Giuffre's attorneys, Maxwell took a combative and sometimes elusive stance, refusing to answer various questions and repeatedly denying knowledge that Epstein was engaging in sexual activity with minors.
"I never saw any inappropriate underage activity with Jeffrey," Maxwell said, according to the transcript.
According to the documents, among the circle of friends of her and
Epstein were also Donald Trump and Bill Clinton
, figures of lineage involved such as Prince Andrew.
"I couldn't characterize Jeffrey's relationship" with Clinton, Maxwell said, according to the transcript.
Asked for comment on Thursday, a Clinton spokesperson referred to a statement issued last year.
[The suicide of Jeffrey Epstein: more questions than answers]
"President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes that Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those he has recently been charged with in New York," the statement said.
The testimony of Maxwell's deposition is part of the federal charges filed against him earlier this summer.
Prosecutors say Epstein's former partner helped sexually abuse girls in the mid-1990s and was involved in some of the abuse
.
Maxwell has also been charged with perjury in connection with her deposition testimony and has pleaded not guilty.
She is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, just across the river from the federal prison in Manhattan where Epstein committed suicide in August 2019 while waiting to be tried on sex trafficking charges.
[Authorities deny parole to Ghislaine Maxwell, ex-partner of Jeffrey Epstein]
Maxwell's attorneys had argued that the transcripts of the statements must remain sealed to protect his right to a fair trial and because they contain confidential information.
But the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against Maxwell on Monday, calling the arguments "without merit."
Melania Trump, Prince Andrew, Gwendolyn Beck and Jeffrey Epstein during a party at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida;
on February 12, 2000. Getty Images
A federal judge in New York on Tuesday ordered the release of the documents.
Giuffre said in a tweet late Wednesday that she was "very grateful" for the decision to release the remarks
.
"This journey to justice has taken decades for my fellow abuse survivors and myself, including years in which our voices were ignored," Giuffre said.
“Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein did not act alone.
With more transparency, I am hopeful that all those who helped perpetrate these heinous crimes will be held accountable, ”he added.
The records were released nearly three months after documents on the same case were released.
Those records included emails between Epstein and Maxwell
from 2015, apparently contradicting their claims to a judge that he had no contact with him for more than a decade.
[Prince Andrew is not cooperating in the Epstein investigation as he promised to do]
In an email full of typos, dated January 25, 2015, Epstein wrote: "You have done nothing wrong and I would urge you to start acting like one. Go out on the street, head up, no like a rebellious convict. Go to parties and don't fight like it is. "