Ghislaine Maxwell Called a Predator, Defense Says She is Innocent as Trial Goes to Jury

Ghislaine Maxwell was called a predator, while the Defense said she is innocent as the case went to the jury to deliberate Monday.

Just before 5 p.m., the jury was given the case once two prosecutors and a defense lawyer gave their closing argument over a span of six hours.

"Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous," Assistant Attorney Alison Moe said.

"Maxwell and Epstein committed horrifying crimes," she said, citing more than $30 million Epstein gave Maxwell, 59, through the years.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey said the defense's claim that Maxwell had no knowledge of the abuse that occurred to the four trial accusers for over a decade was a "laughable argument."

"Those four witnesses gave you the most damaging testimony in this trial," she said. "These women put themselves through the hell of testifying at this trial even though they have nothing to gain."

"They did it for justice," Comey added.

On the other hand, defense lawyer Laura Menninger said prosecutors were unsuccessful in proving any charges beyond a reasonable doubt

"Ghislaine Maxwell is an innocent woman, wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit," Menninger said. "Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein."

Menninger said civil lawyers representing the accusers influenced their testimonies while they pursued millions of dollars in payouts from a special fund made after Epstein's suicide as compensation for his victims.

The women suddenly "recovered memories that Ghislaine was there," Menninger said.

Maxwell had been composed, if not cheerful, as she interacted with her lawyers and family members for the first three weeks of the trial. But she seemed emotional as Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey rebutted defense arguments and asserted the British socialite believed her four trial accusers were beneath her.

"In her eyes, they were just trash," Comey said as Maxwell shook her head slightly and then drooped her eyes.

Earlier, she had wiped her eyes twice as Comey attacked defense portrayals of the women who testified about abuse. The prosecutor said Maxwell played a pivotal role in Epstein's quest to sexually abuse teenage girls.

Defense lawyer Laura Menninger had argued that the women's recollections of abuse by Epstein and Maxwell were flawed memories manipulated two decades or more later by civil lawyers seeking payouts or U.S. government investigators seeking a scapegoat after Epstein killed himself in a federal jail in 2019 while he awaited his own sex trafficking trial.

The prosecutor started her remarks by disputing a claim by the defense that nearly all the evidence pertained to Epstein, and Maxwell did not deserve to be blamed as a conspirator in his crimes.

"This case is about that woman," Comey said, pointing at Maxwell, who sat at the defense table in a white sweater as four of her siblings watched from the first bench of spectators in a courtroom where everyone followed spacing rules dictated by the coronavirus.

Earlier, Moe called Maxwell the "lady of the house" when Epstein abused girls at a New York mansion, a Florida estate and a New Mexico ranch.

The summations came at the start of the fourth week of a trial that was originally projected to last six weeks. With a coronavirus outbreak in New York worsening by the day and a holiday weekend ahead, Judge Alison J. Nathan urged lawyers to keep their closings tight so the jury could begin deliberating as early as Monday.

Maxwell has been jailed since her arrest in July 2020. The judge has denied her bail repeatedly, despite her lawyer's arguments that the pledge of her $22.5 million estate and a willingness to be watched 24 hours a day by armed guards would guarantee her appearance in court.

The closings came after two dozen prosecution witnesses testified, including the four women who say they were abused by Epstein with the help of Maxwell when they were teenagers.

Moe told jurors that Maxwell was a "posh, smiling age-appropriate woman" who provided cover for Epstein's "creepy" behavior.

She asked them to ignore the testimony of a psychology professor who testified for the defense, saying the testimony that memories can fade over time and be influenced by what people hear, see or read was a "total distraction."

"These women know what happened to their own bodies," she said. "Your common sense tells you that being molested is something you never forget, ever."

But Menninger defended the testimony of the memory expert, citing instances in which Maxwell's accusers never mentioned the defendant's name when they first spoke of the abuse they endured from Epstein.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.