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Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team claimed Tuesday the juror at the center of their retrial request “violated” the convicted madam’s right to a fair trial with his jury questionnaire responses.
Maxwell’s lawyers also said the juror “corrupted the voir dire” — the process during jury selection when the judge and attorneys question potential jurors to determine if they can be impartial in the case.
The claims were included in a Tuesday letter from Maxwell’s attorneys to Judge Alison Nathan arguing why their motion for a new trial should remain sealed.
Maxwell’s attorneys called for a new trial last month after the juror revealed he had been sexually abused as a child in a number of press interviews after the trial.
The juror, identified by his first and middle names, Scotty David, said he couldn’t recall how he answered questions about past sex abuse that were posed to potential panelists in a questionnaire before the trial.
David told Reuters that he “flew through” the questionnaire, but was sure that he answered the question truthfully.
In Tuesday’s letter, Maxwell’s attorneys said their retrial motion should remain under wraps until the court makes a ruling — or after a potential hearing on the request.
The defense team argued that unsealing the motion would give the juror “an improper preview of information he does not have and should never have, or at the very least should not have at this point in the process.”
Among the information, the lawyers are trying to keep from the juror are his “exact” questionnaire responses that have not been made public.
“The Motion will provide a roadmap of the defense’s examination of Juror 50 and will allow him to plan out and tailor his responses, or even potentially spoliate evidence, to paint himself and his conduct in the best light possible,” the lawyers argued in the letter.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted in late December of sex trafficking and other charges for luring and grooming underage girls for her longtime companion, Jeffrey Epstein, to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
She faces up to 65 years in prison.
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