Nearly two years after Gislane Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire and brought to New York on charges of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, train and abuse underage girls, she is due to stand trial in federal court on Tuesday. in Manhattan.
If Judge Alison J. Nathan agreed to the government’s request for a sentence of at least 30 years, and Ms. Maxwell could spend much of the rest of her life in prison.
Ms Maxwell, 60, the daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, was convicted on December 29 and will face three charges: sexual trafficking, conspiracy and transporting a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.
The defense asked the judge to impose a sentence less than the 20 years recommended by the probation service. There is no minimum sentence for Ms Maxwell, who has been in prison since she was denied bail following her arrest on July 2, 2020.
The hearing of Ms. Maxwell’s sentence could take more than an hour. Several of her prosecutors, including some who testified during the trial, asked to appear before a judge, and Ms. Maxwell will also be given the opportunity to speak. Her lawyers told her that she intended to appeal and that Ms Maxwell, who had not testified at the trial against her, might choose to remain silent in court on Tuesday.
Her trial was widely seen as a retribution that 66-year-old Epstein, her longtime companion, had never had. The infamous financier hanged himself in a prison cell in Manhattan a month after his arrest in July 2019, while awaiting his own trial on charges of sexual trafficking.
Still, Mr. Epstein loomed over the process, his name appearing repeatedly, and Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers took every opportunity to separate their client from him.
Ms Maxwell’s lawyers, in a sentencing letter to the judge, quoted Ms Maxwell’s testimony about Ms. Maxwell’s “facilitation of Epstein’s abuse”, but argued that “Epstein was the brain, Epstein was the main abuser and Epstein organizes crimes for personal gratification
Lawyers say the government only turned its attention to Ms. Maxwell after the public uproar following Mr Epstein’s death while at the Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons. They said authorities urgently wanted to “calm the renewed suffering of Epstein’s prosecutors and repair the tarnished reputation of the DOJ and BOP”.
“There will be no trial for Epstein and no public acquittal and justice for his prosecutors,” the lawyers wrote. “The government now had to fill a huge hole: Epstein’s empty chair.
The office of Damien Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a presentation to the judge that Ms. Maxwell had failed to deal with her criminal behavior and had shown “a complete lack of remorse.”
Ms Maxwell’s attempt to “slander the government for persecuting her, as well as her claim that she was held accountable for Epstein’s crimes, is both absurd and offensive,” prosecutors wrote.
“Instead of even showing a hint of responsibility, the defendant is making a desperate attempt to throw the blame wherever she can,” they said.
The prosecution offered its evidence through 24 witnesses over 10 days in a case focusing on four adult prosecutors. Two of the women said Mr Epstein had sex with them when they were 14 years old. One said Ms. Maxwell sometimes attended meetings, and the other said Ms. Maxwell directly harassed her by touching her breasts.
“Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what he was doing,” Alison Moe, a federal prosecutor, told the jury in a summary. “She manipulates her victims and prepares them for sexual violence.”
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