Nearly two years after Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire and taken to New York to face charges of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to recruit, prepare and abuse underage girls, she will be sentenced Tuesday in federal court. of Manhattan.
If Judge Alison J. Nathan agrees with the government’s request for a sentence of at least 30 years, Ms. Maxwell could spend much of the rest of her life in prison.
Mrs Maxwell, 60, daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, was convicted on December 29 and will face up to three counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy and transporting a minor with intent to participate in illegal sexual activities.
The defense has asked the judge to impose a sentence of less than 20 years recommended by the court’s probation office. There is no minimum sentence for Ms Maxwell, who has been jailed since she was denied bail after her arrest on July 2, 2020.
Mrs. Maxwell’s sentencing hearing could last more than an hour. Several of her accusers, including some who testified at her trial, have asked to go to the judge, and Ms. Maxwell will also have the opportunity to speak. His lawyers have said he plans to appeal, and it is possible that Mrs Maxwell, who did not testify at trial, will also choose to remain silent in court on Tuesday.
His trial was widely regarded as the trial that Mr. Epstein, 66, his lifelong companion, never had. The dishonored financier hung himself in a Manhattan jail cell a month after his arrest in July 2019 while awaiting his own trial on sex trafficking charges.
Still, Mr. Epstein raised the issue: his name appeared repeatedly and Ms. Epstein’s lawyers. Maxwell took every opportunity to separate his client from him.
The lawyers of Mrs. Maxwell, in a sentencing letter to the judge, cited the trial’s testimony on Ms. Epstein’s “facilitation of abuse.” Maxwell, however, argued that “Epstein was the brain, Epstein was the main abuser and Epstein orchestrated the crimes for his personal gratification.”
Lawyers claimed the government turned its attention to Ms Maxwell only after the public uproar following Mr Maxwell’s death. Epstein while in the custody of the Department of Justice and the Prisons Office. They said authorities urgently wanted to “appease the renewed anguish of Epstein’s accusers and repair the deteriorated reputation of the DOJ and the BOP.”
“There would be no trial for Epstein and no public claim and justice for his accusers,” the lawyers wrote. “The government now had a big hole to fill: Epstein’s empty chair.”
The office of Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in his presentation to the judge that Ms. Maxwell had not addressed her criminal conduct and showed a “total lack of remorse.”
Prosecutors wrote Ms. Maxwell “of criticizing the government for prosecuting her, and her claim that she is held responsible for Epstein’s crimes, are both absurd and offensive.”
“Instead of showing even a hint of acceptance of responsibility, the defendant makes a desperate attempt to blame wherever she can,” they said.
The prosecution offered its evidence through 24 witnesses for 10 days in a case that focused on four accusers, now adults. Two of the women said Mr. Epstein engaged in sexual acts with them from the age of 14 years. One said Ms. Maxwell was sometimes present at the meetings, and the other said Ms. Maxwell. Maxwell bothered her directly by touching her breasts.
“Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what he was doing,” federal prosecutor Alison Moe told the jury in her summary. “She manipulated her victims and prepared them for sexual abuse.”