UK police to review Epstein-Maxwell case 0:41
(CNN) -
A woman, who said she was sexually abused by Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein more than two decades ago, testified in court Wednesday that she met Donald Trump when she was 14 and Epstein took her to Mar-a- Lago, the former president's Florida residence.
The woman, identified in court under the pseudonym "Jane," also testified that she flew several times on Epstein's private plane along with Prince Andrew, celebrity chef Adam Perry Lang, and Epstein's mother and brother.
Woman testifies that Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein started sexually abusing her when she was 14
He did not accuse the former Trump president or any of the other passengers on the plane of wrongdoing.
She also stated that Epstein never asked her to recruit other girls or ask her to engage in sexual acts with anyone else.
CNN has reached out to Trump for comment.
Her testimony came during Maxwell's criminal trial on six federal charges, including child sex trafficking, in what prosecutors say was a scheme to lure and recruit underage girls for Epstein's sexual purposes.
The trial has already exposed some of Epstein's connections to high-profile figures like Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
Jeffrey Epstein case: what is Ghislaine Maxwell accused of?
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The common history of Epstein and Trump
Maxwell, Epstein and Trump were in similar social orbits, with both men maintaining residences in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York.
And they were photographed together, sometimes with Trump's then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, multiple times throughout the 1990s and 2000s.
In 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, "I've known Jeff for fifteen years. He's a great guy," adding that Epstein had a reputation for liking young women.
Last year, Trump was questioned about the allegations against Maxwell and said he wished him "the best."
Trump has told reporters in recent years that he barred Epstein from entering his Mar-a-Lago estate, but has never explained why their friendship ended.
Epstein, who had pleaded guilty in 2008 to state prostitution charges, was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019. He was found dead in his prison cell a month later in what the medical examiner ruled a suicide. .
Maxwell, the
British
socialite
and close confidant of Epstein, was arrested a year later and has pleaded not guilty.
In opening statements Monday, prosecutors said Maxwell and Epstein created a "pyramid-based abuse scam scheme" to lure underage girls into sexual relationships with Epstein.
Her defense, meanwhile, said she was a "scapegoat" for Epstein's actions and attacked the memories and motivations of women who say they have been sexually abused.
The 'socialite' behind Jeffrey Epstein 3:38
Epstein's private pilot was the prosecution's first witness at the trial, declaring that Maxwell was Epstein's "go-to person" for non-business matters.
The pilot, Larry Visoski, mentioned a number of powerful men who flew aboard the plane.
Visoski also testified that he never saw any sexual activity on board.
Defense questions "Jane" for her inconsistencies
Jane, the second witness for the prosecution, began her testimony Tuesday and said she met Maxwell and Epstein in 1994, when she was 14 years old.
They spent time with her, asked her about her family and interests, and led her to do fun things, and for a while Maxwell felt like an older sister, she stated.
Then the abuses began, he said. She described incidents of sexual abuse with Epstein that Maxwell sometimes joined, both in Palm Beach and Manhattan, when she was 14, 15 and 16 years old. She testified that Epstein would masturbate on her and tease her, and that Maxwell would sometimes participate, touching her and Epstein. At least once, Maxwell "instructed" him on how Epstein liked to be massaged while the three of them were in Epstein's "massage room," he stated.
In cross-examination Wednesday, Jane named several women who had been involved in the sexualized group massages that she called "orgies," in her recollections.
She said she could probably recognize them if photos were shown to her, but said no authority or police force ever reviewed any photos with her to identify her.
The witness breaks down on the second day of testimony
Defense attorney Laura Menninger asked Jane about her long career in acting and entertainment.
Bill Clinton and Trump reportedly flew Epstein's private plane 1:00
"Essentially, there is no melodramatic role that you haven't played," said the defense attorney, recapping some of Jane's on-screen roles over the years.
"Can he cry when asked?" Menninger asked.
"That's not how it works," said Jane.
At the reorientation, prosecutor Alison Moe asked the witness if she knew the difference between acting on television and testifying under oath.
"Testifying in court is the truth," replied Jane.
"It's the truth".
"I'm here to finally hope to find some kind of closure to all of this," replied Jane when asked why she was on the stand.
"This is something I've been running from my whole life until now. And I'm tired of it."
Jane testified that she was silent about the abuse because she did not believe her mother was supportive of her.
Later, Jane's voice cracked as she reminded the prosecutor of the time it took to share her story with law enforcement: "Sitting in a room full of strangers and telling them the deepest and most shameful secrets that I had carried with me all my life. ".
Jane sobbed when the prosecutor asked her about the money she had received from the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund.
He gasped and wiped his face with a handkerchief before answering.
"In this country, compensation is the only thing you can get to try to move on with your life and for the damn pain and abuse and suffering that I received and all the pocket money that I spent to try to make this go away and to try to fix myself, "he told the court.
Previously, Menninger spent considerable time reviewing previous statements Jane made in interviews with law enforcement officials since 2019, showing possible inconsistencies with her testimony in court.
Menninger asked her a series of questions about statements in which Jane told law enforcement officers that she was not sure whether Maxwell ever touched her and that she did not recall Maxwell being present for any sexual activity between her and Epstein.
Jane repeatedly said that she did not remember whether she had told investigators that.
On other occasions, Jane said, while reviewing law enforcement notes from those interrogations on the stand, that the notes were inaccurate, sometimes inconsistent with her timeline and not an exact transcript of her statements, which were not recorded. .
New details are known about the last days of Jeffrey Epstein 0:45
The woman said she hired a lawyer around 2007 to help stop false press reports about her and Epstein and confront people who "harassed" her about her connection to Epstein.
She acknowledged speaking with Virginia Roberts Giuffre's attorney, Brad Edwards, a plaintiff attorney for several Epstein accusers, when contacted by Epstein, but also said she wanted nothing to do with the Epstein prosecution at the time and that he did not share his testimony with law enforcement at the time.
After nearly eight hours on the stand for two days, Jane pulled herself together and hurried off the stand with a handful of tissues when she finished her testimony.
"How do you think I got the money, Mom?"
Jane's ex-boyfriend testified briefly Wednesday, saying she told him that the financial help her family received from "godfather" Jeffrey Epstein "was not free."
The ex-boyfriend testified under the pseudonym "Matt", noting that in the early years of their relationship, in the mid-2000s, Jane talked about a man who was like a "godfather" or "uncle" who helped his father financially. family.
He revealed that that person was Epstein when news of his arrest in Florida broke.
Epstein's Mansion, Sold for Nearly $ 51 Million 0:35
Matt testified that Jane did not go into much detail about Epstein's abuse, but told him that the "money was not free."
Jane told Matt that having a woman around when he was with Epstein made her feel more comfortable, but she did not reveal the woman's name, she told the court.
After reports of Maxwell's arrest in 2019, Matt said, Jane revealed her name to him.
On the stand, Matt recalled that Jane confronted her mother about the abuse around 2011 and accused her of turning a blind eye.
"How do you think I got the money, Mom?" He remembered saying to her.
"Jane told her mother that the money was not free and that it is impossible that she did not know that it was not free," she said.
The defense had no questions for Matt.
Later, outside of court, Maxwell's brother Kevin told reporters that Wednesday was the first time he was able to speak to her in person in more than 500 days.
"It gave me a tremendous sense of relief to be around her, to be able to see her in the flesh and even to be able to talk to her," Kevin Maxwell said of his younger sister.
With information from Ray Sánchez.
Sexual abuse Ghislaine Maxwell Jeffrey Epstein
