The Trials of Jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine Maxwell

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Julia Maina, Reporter

Ex-American financer, Jeffrey Epestin left behind ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell to be trialed for the sexual abuse of many young girls around the world. 

The billionaire, having vacation mansions in more than three different states, also acquired seventy two acres of land in the U.S Virgin Islands for nearly $8 million. This vacation mansion is alleged to be where Epstein did most all of his sex traficking activites with Maxwell present. 

In the earlier times of Epstein’s life, he taught at Dalton School on the upper east side of Manhattan as a physics and mathematics teacher. Through later working with financial consulting firms, Epstein wanted to create his own firm helping clients embezzle money. With all his fame, the relationships he had began to expand. Having contact with people like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Prince Andrew, and so many more, Epstein was able to lure young women in with ‘job opportunities’. 

On July 7, 2019, federal prosecutors arrested Epstein for engaging in sexual acts with minors. Later, on August 10, 2019, Epstein allegedly killed himself by hanging, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. The circumstances surrounding his death have been arguably suspicious; allegedly, the guards had fallen asleep while on duty and failed to check Epstein’s cell all while the cameras monitoring his jail cell were not working. 

Through all of these events, Maxwell had arguably been tied into all of Epstein’s sexual acts. On July 20, 2020, Maxwell was arrested by FBI in Bradford, New Hampsire and charged with numerous accounts of sexual activity and perjury of minors.

Many women since then have came forward testifying the sex traficking of Epstein and Maxwell. An accuser under the pseudonym [fictitious name] Jane, said she met Epstein and Maxwell for the first time at an performing-art summer camp in Michigan of 1994. Epstein had talked with Jane and received the mothers phone number and asked to meet for tea. This meeting was the first of many Jane had at the Epstein house in Palm Beach, Florida. She mentioned she would visit their house “every week or two”for the next five  years until she finally moved across the country. “The first few visits were simply just having meals together or pool parties and he had even paid for my private school tuition as well as an apartment for my mother to live in.” After the first visit where Jane was sexual abused,  she felt like she had to go back because of all that he had done for her and her family. “It all started to seem the same after a while. You just become numb to it” Jane commented. Many note that Epstein and Maxwell mostly targeted young girls who had come from a poor background, or girls who didn’t have much and were helpless. “I was the perfect victim for them”, said Virginia Giuffre, working at the Trump Estate. Having been from a poor family, Giuffre would take any opportunity available to acquire money. In a May 2016 deposition, Giuffre stated that Maxwell ordered her to have sexual intercourse with Prince Andrew and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson. 

Monday, November 29, 2021, trial started in the U.S. Federal Court in Manhattan against Maxwell. Many survivors of Epestin’s abuse flew out to show their support towards other survivors. Prosecutors say this trial will take up to six weeks. During the week, the first two days featured  accuser ‘Jane’ and her testimony. She spoke about the events  that happened to her as well as being cross-examined by Maxwell’s defense team. The third and fourth days were recorded as the testimony and cross-examination of Epstein’s former housekeeper, Juan Alessi. Alessi viewed Maxwell as the “lady of the house”. She kept in order a “tremendous” number of rules for him to follow, one including never to look Epstein in the eyes. While searching the Palm Beach mansion, prosecutors found an instruction manual that Epstein would give to staff working in his home. Read on page fifty eight of the booklet, “Remember that you see nothing, hear nothing, say nothing, except to answer a question directed at you.”  

On day five of the trial, the massage table Epstein used was brought into the courtroom to be examined.  Jane explained where she was in the house when it was used and what Epstein and Maxwell would do while using it. Police and prosecutors testify to assent the locations of Jane’s memory of the massage table in Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion. When Alessi was cross-examined on the incidents that happened in the “massage room” he was asked if he had ever seen or heard anything that alerted to misconduct. 

“I wish they would have because I would have done something,” he said.