Ghislaine Maxwell was a “sophisticated predator” who exploited young girls along with her “partner,” the dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors told jurors Monday as they closed out their case.
“She was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe said in Manhattan federal court. “She ran the same playbook again and again and again.”
The prosecutor said it was “time to hold [Maxwell] accountable” for allegedly helping Epstein prey on underage girls.
“Maxwell was Jeffrey Epstein’s right hand,” Moe said, describing how the pair dated for several years, and were “partners.”
“When you’re with someone for 11 years you know what they like.”
The 59-year-old British heiress — daughter to the late publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell — is accused of grooming four teenage girls in the early 1990s and early 2000s.
“She was grown woman who preyed on vulnerable kids,” Moe said. “She caused deep and lasting harm to young girls.”
The prosecutor said she would lay out eight reasons that show Maxwell’s guilt, including the so-called playbook she ran to lure underage girls for Epstein to abuse.
“Maxwell was crucial to the whole scheme,” Moe said. “Epstein could not have done this alone.”
“Maxwell was the key to the whole operation.”
She described how Maxwell and Epstein allegedly targeted vulnerable young girls, like the four accusers who testified at trial — Jane, Kate, Carolyn and Annie Farmer.
Three of the women said Maxwell touched their breasts when they were teens.
“Maxwell touched these girls’ bodies … when they were kids in massage rooms, on massage tables,” Moe said. “Its not an accident. It happened again and again and again.”
Maxwell, 59, has denied the charges, with her defense attorneys claiming the government is using her as a scapegoat for Epstein, who killed himself behind bars in August 2019, a month after his arrest on sex-trafficking charges.
She faces 70 years behind bars if she is convicted of all six counts she faces.