The jury deciding Ghislaine Maxwell’s fate at her sex-trafficking trial ended its first full day of deliberations without reaching a verdict Tuesday.
The 12-person panel spent eight hours deliberating and sent four notes to Judge Alison Nathan, requesting documents and asking for clarification about what evidence they can weigh in reaching a verdict.
In one afternoon note, the jury requested an FBI document related to a statement that a Maxwell accuser, who testified using her first name, Carolyn, made to agents in 2007 about her being abused by the socialite’s pedophile pal, Jeffrey Epstein.
The statement was never entered into evidence, but at trial, the defense had homed in on it and other information Carolyn gave to the FBI in an attempt to undermine her credibility. For example, Maxwell lawyers noted that Carolyn never specifically identified Maxwell by name as one of her abusers to the feds in 2007.
Judge Nathan ruled that jurors could only review Carolyn’s trial testimony about the statements, not the actual documents themselves.
In a second afternoon note, the panel asked the judge if it could consider testimony from accuser Annie Farmer as evidence of conspiracy to commit a crime involving two counts that Maxwell faces.
One of Maxwell’s lawyers was spotted outside the courthouse loading cardboard boxes into a white van. AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura
The jury in the Ghislaine Maxwell trial the jury requested transcripts of three accusers who testified at trial. Alec Tabak“I received your note. The answer is, yes, you may consider it,” Judge Nathan wrote back.
Soon after they began deliberations Tuesday morning, the jury sent a note requesting transcripts of three accusers who testified at trial.
“We would like the transcripts, testimony of Jane, Annie and Carolyn,” the jurors wrote.
Jane had told the jury she met Maxwell and perverted financier Epstein at age 14 when the pair approached her at a Michigan arts camp in the early 1990s.
Jane was then groomed for abuse at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion by Maxwell, prosecutors said.
Farmer, the only accuser to give her full name, said Maxwell gave her a nude massage and groped her when she was just a teen after she was lured to Epstein’s New Mexico ranch.
Carolyn testified that she met Maxwell and Epstein when she was 14 and ended up giving massages to the millionaire more than 100 times at his Palm Beach estate — and “something sexual happened every single time.” She said Maxwell arranged the sessions and groped her at least once.
Prosecutors and Maxwell’s defense team ended their cases Monday afternoon with closing arguments.
The jury was charged by Nathan on Monday afternoon and deliberated for about 50 minutes before heading home for the night without reaching a verdict.
A courtroom sketch of Maxwell embracing her defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim as she enters the courtroom. REUTERS/Jane RosenbergOn Tuesday morning, one of Maxwell’s lawyers was spotted outside the courthouse helping load cardboard boxes into a white van.
It’s unclear what was in the boxes, but one of the containers had “shred all” scrawled on it in black marker.
Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe had urged jurors at the trial to view Maxwell as a “sophisticated predator” who preyed on young, vulnerable girls as Epstein’s “right hand” and “partner in crime.”
“Maxwell and Epstein were partners. They were partners in crime who sexually exploited young girls together,” Moe said.
Throughout the trial, Maxwell’s lawyers sought to undermine the credibility of her accusers, including by suggesting some of them may have false memories about their experiences with Maxwell.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s sisters Isabelle (left) and Christine arrive at the US Court House in New York on December 21, 2021. BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images“If you’re under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time you acquire the memory, that affects the quality of the formation of the memory in the first place. The older a memory gets, the more susceptible it is to post-event information,” defense lawyer Laura Menninger told the jury.







