Ghislaine Maxwell's Deposition Is Unsealed

'I never saw any inappropriate underage activities with Jeffrey ever'
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 22, 2020 12:50 PM CDT
Ghislaine Maxwell's Deposition Is Unsealed
In this July 2 file photo, Audrey Strauss, acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference, in New York.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Ghislaine Maxwell fought hard to keep her 2016 deposition about the Jeffrey Epstein scandal under wraps, to no avail. A judge ordered the deposition, part of a civil lawsuit, released on Thursday, and news outlets were poring over the 465-page document. You can read it in full via Law & Crime. Maxwell has been charged with recruiting three underage girls in the 1990s for Epstein to sexually abuse and committing perjury in the depositions, per the AP. She has pleaded not guilty. Some highlights:

  • Maxwell denied introducing Britain’s Prince Andrew to underage sex partners, calling the prince's accuser, Virginia Giuffre, an "awful fantasist."
  • "Are we tallying all the lies?" Maxwell asked during the deposition, saying she could not recall taking Giuffre out for a night of clubbing with Andrew in London. "Her tissue of lies is extremely hard to pick apart what is true and what isn’t."

  • Maxwell, 58, parried a long list of inquiries about Epstein’s sexual proclivities and her interactions with Giuffre and other young women, insisting she never saw the financier have sex with anybody.
  • “I never saw any inappropriate underage activities with Jeffrey ever,” Maxwell also said. Giuffre has accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous wealthy and influential men, including Prince Andrew. He and the other men have denied her allegations.
  • "All the time that I have been in the house I have never seen, heard, nor witnessed, nor have [had] reported to me that any activities took place, that people were in distress, either reported to me by the staff or anyone else," said Maxwell.
  • Maxwell repeatedly denied hiring anyone under the age of 18 for Epstein. As for whether she was Epstein's girlfriend after meeting him in 1991, Maxwell called it a “tricky" question. “There were times when I would have liked to think of myself as his girlfriend," she said.
  • Asked whether it was Epstein’s “preference to start a massage with sex," Maxwell said: “I think you should ask that question of Jeffrey.” In a deposition of Epstein conducted later in 2016, Epstein mostly invoked the Fifth Amendment, which protects against self incrimination. “Fifth,” he replied when he was asked if Maxwell was “one of the main women” he used to procure underage girls for sexual activities.
  • US District Judge Loretta A. Preska allowed the release of the transcripts after rejecting arguments that the interviews for Giuffre's 2015 defamation lawsuit against Maxwell would jeopardize a fair criminal trial for Maxwell next July. Maxwell has been held without bail since her July arrest on charges that she procured the underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 1997.
(More Ghislaine Maxwell stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X