As deliberations potentially stretch into new year, Ghislaine Maxwell begins to court media
The jury that is deciding Ghislaine Maxwell’s fate could be ringing in the new year in a New York courthouse.
After the jury requested to see additional testimony Wednesday from several more witnesses who testified in Maxwell’s trial, they also asked whether they would be expected to continue deliberating on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. The jury began its deliberation on Monday, Dec. 20, but took a two-day break ahead of Christmas.
“It’s my view we need to proceed every day unless they indicate it’s a hardship,” said U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, who is presiding over the case. She has expressed concern about the surge of COVID-19 cases in New York City connected to the omicron variant and the impact it could have on the proceedings.
The request for more testimony, including from several witnesses called by Maxwell’s legal team, seemed to be met with elation from Maxwell and her lawyers, who could be seen smiling at the latest request by the jurors to review more testimony.
“The defense has to be feeling good about the length of the deliberations,” said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor.
After Nathan left the courtroom, Maxwell’s family attorney, Leah Saffian, who has been a regular in the courtroom seated with Maxwell’s family, motioned to James Hill, a producer for ABC News, to introduce him to Maxwell.
Maxwell smiled and appeared to introduce herself to Hill and was heard to say that she was willing to speak to the media before a U.S. marshal told the journalist to return to his seat.
While Maxwell’s trial, on six charges related to sex trafficking, was shorter than anticipated, the jury has deliberated for more than five days as it determines whether Maxwell is guilty of recruiting and grooming four accusers to be sexually abused by her ex-boyfriend, deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The charges are complex and the jury has asked multiple times for clarification on which alleged offenses correspond to which charges.
Maxwell was arrested in July 2020, one year after Epstein had been arrested on new sex charges. Epstein’s arrest came in the wake of the Miami Herald’s Perversion of Justice series, which highlighted the remarkably lenient plea deal Epstein had negotiated a decade earlier after being investigated for allegedly abusing numerous girls in Palm Beach.
Epstein pleaded guilty to two state solicitation charges, one involving a minor, and served 13 months in a county jail, where he was granted work release and allowed to spend most days working out of a nearby office.
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 11:25 AM.
