US prosecutors on Friday rested their case in the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, with the defense now preparing to argue that the British socialite did not recruit and sexually abuse girls with the late Jeffrey Epstein.
The high-profile trial has moved more swiftly than anticipated, with the government resting just 10 days after it began questioning witnesses.
The prosecution have sought to portray the Maxwell as Epstein’s partner in crime, grooming young girls to be sexually exploited by the US financier, who killed himself in jail two years ago while awaiting his own trial.
Photo: Reuters
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to six counts of enticing and transporting minors for sex. The government wrapped with testimony from her fourth and final accuser, Annie Farmer, a now 42-year-old who says Maxwell fondled her breasts when she was a teenager at the New Mexico ranch owned by Epstein.
The trial is expected to resume on Thursday next week.
Farmer, the only accuser in the trial to testify using her full true name, told jurors her first encounter with Epstein went from convivial to nervewracking when the well-connected money-manager began caressing her hand, foot and leg in a New York movie theater.
She said despite feeling “sick to my stomach” she did not tell her sister Maria — then Epstein’s employee, who Farmer was visiting at the time — because she feared for her sibling’s job.
Months later, Farmer, who was 16, was invited to travel from Arizona to New Mexico, she said.
Farmer was invited ostensibly as part of a “retreat” that Epstein said would bring together some two dozen “academically gifted” students,” her mother, Janice Swain, said.
Epstein told Swain that Maxwell would “chaperone” the girls, but when she arrived Farmer found herself alone with Maxwell and Epstein.
A weekend that included shopping and movies also saw Maxwell direct Farmer to undress for a massage, according to testimony.
Maxwell then exposed Farmer’s breasts before “rubbing on my chest,” she said.
“I think this was all a pattern of them confusing my boundaries,” Farmer told jurors. “With the ultimate goal of sexually abusing me.”
Her testimony followed accounts from three other women who accused Epstein of sexual abuse and pinpointed Maxwell as his partner.
Maxwell’s team has yet to indicate who they intend to call in her defense, but told the judge on Friday they expected their case to last upwards of four days.
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