Jeffrey Epstein Confidante Ghislaine Maxwell Arrested on Sex Abuse Charges
Jeffrey Epstein Confidante Ghislaine Maxwell Arrested on Sex Abuse Charges
Prosecutors allege Maxwell helped Epstein traffic and abuse underage girls; he died by suicide awaiting trial last year
By Jonathan Dienst, Joe Valiquette, Tom Winter and Sarah
Published 2 hours ago • Updated
What to Know
- Jeffrey Epstein confidante Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested Thursday morning in New Hampshire, law enforcement sources say
- Maxwell will face charges that she conspired with the disgraced financier to sexually abuse underage girls
- Epstein, a friend to presidents and captains of industry, died by suicide last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges
Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and heiress who became a confidante of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and was later implicated in his alleged sexual crimes, has been arrested by the FBI, two senior law enforcement sources tell News 4 New York.
She was arrested in Bedford, New Hampshire around 8:30 a.m. on charges she conspired with Epstein to sexually abuse minors, and is expected to appear in a federal court later today, the sources say.
The six-count indictment in Manhattan federal court alleges that Maxwell helped Epstein groom girls as young as 14 years old, going back as far as 1994.
"In some instances, Maxwell was present for and participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims," the indictment says.
The daughter of media baron Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine was a one-time girlfriend of Epstein's and was at the high-flying investor's side for decades.
But she was also alleged to have helped Epstein groom teen girls for sex with the rich and powerful. One of those teens, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, leveled that charge against Maxwell in a 2015 defamation suit, as have a number of other women
JEFFREY EPSTEIN
Epstein, a registered sex offender who nonetheless kept company with presidents and captains of industry, was arrested last summer on new federal charges of exploiting dozens of underage girls in New York and Florida in the early 2000s.
He attempted suicide in custody in late July, and then died after another suicide attempt in early August. Two of the guards tasked with monitoring Epstein now face federal charges for not properly supervising him before his death.
One day before his suicide, a federal appeals court released the transcript of a 2016 deposition in which Epstein repeatedly refused to say whether Maxwell had procured young girls for him. Maxwell now faces multiple counts of perjury for allegedly lying in her own deposition about Epstein's sexual activities.
She has stayed below the radar since Epstein's death, as speculation swirled about whether she could face repercussions for her friend's alleged abuses.
"Epstein got a crooked, sweetheart deal years ago that protected his coconspirators, like Maxwell. Maxwell has been on the run for months because she too hoped to escape justice. We can’t let that happen again -- her victims deserve their day in court," Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said in a statement Thursday.
Sasse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has pushed aggressively for the Justice Department to investigate what was described as a sweetheart deal that gave Epstein and others immunity from federal charges in 2007.
Then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta was involved in negotiating that deal -- and 12 years later, he resigned as Labor Secretary amid criticism of the arrangement.
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/loca...m_npd_nn_tw_ma
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