By The Associated Press via
NBC News
A judge concluded Friday that there was enough evidence to convict Britain's Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse them, but also handed the woman a legal victory by concluding that three counts of conspiracy convicted her. accused of the same crime and can only be convicted of one.
District Judge Alison J. Nathan said in her written ruling that the jury's guilty verdicts were "easily supported" by extensive witness testimony and documentary evidence in a month-long trial that concluded in December.
Maxwell's lawyers had asked him to throw out the verdict on multiple grounds, including insufficient evidence.
In this court portrait, Ghislaine Maxwell enters the courtroom escorted by the US Marshalls at the start of her trial, on Nov. 29, 2021, in New York.Elizabeth Williams/AP
Maxwell, 60, was convicted of recruiting teenage girls for sexual abuse by financier Jeffrey Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
Nathan said he would only sentence Maxwell at the end of June on three of the five counts for which she was convicted, deciding that two counts of conspiracy were duplicates of the third.
"This legal conclusion does not in any way challenge the factual positions made by the jury. On the contrary,
it underlines that the jury unanimously determined -three times- that the defendant is guilty of conspiring with Epstein to attract, transport and traffic in girls for his sexual abuse,”
Nathan wrote.
[A victim and ex-pilot of Epstein testifies at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, ex-girlfriend and assistant of the tycoon]
Reducing the charges from five to three was not expected to have much of an effect on the sentence, when Maxwell could face a sentence ranging from several years to decades in prison.
The woman's attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from NBC News.
Prosecutors did not comment on the matter either.
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Earlier this month, the judge refused to overturn Maxwell's conviction after a juror revealed to other members during deliberations that he had been sexually abused as a child, though he had not disclosed that fact in response to questions. about previous sexual abuse formulated in a written questionnaire.
[British Police Close Investigation Against Prince Andrew In Sexual Abuse Case Linked To Jeffrey Epstein]
The juror had said he "looked too quickly" at the questionnaire and did not intentionally give the wrong answer to a sexual abuse question.
Refusing to overturn the verdict, Nathan said the failure of the jury to reveal his prior sexual abuse during the jury selection process was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate.
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The judge also concluded that the juror "harbored no bias toward the defendant and could serve as a fair and impartial jury."
Maxwell, arrested in July 2020, has remained incarcerated.
Epstein was 66 years old when she took her own life in a federal jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.