Jeffrey Epstein relationship details revealed in Ghislaine Maxwell unsealed court documents

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Ghislaine Maxwell's 2016 defamation deposition has been unsealed ((Getty Images))

Court documents detailing Ghislaine Maxwell’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein have been unsealed and are now public.

They date from a 2016 deposition in a defamation lawsuit brough by Virginia Giuffre, who alleges Epstein sexually abused her as a teenager with help from Ms Maxwell.

The documents form part of US prosecutors’ case against the 58-year-old socialite, who is accused of - and denies - helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sexual acts in the mid-1990s, as well as perjury.

The documents show that Ms Maxwell was questioned persistently about whether she recruited underage girls to massage Epstein, or whether she saw them around his Palm Beach home.

She denied this was the case and the exchanges grew quite heated. Her lawyer, Jeffrey Pagliuci, batted away questions about whether she herself ever gave Epstein massages, telling her interrogator that consensual acts between adults were “frankly, none of your business”.

Key Points

• Socialite says she never saw Epstein massaged by underage girls
• Maxwell’s lawyer objects to questioning about her own relationship with Epstein
• Maxwell questioned on Epstein asking for girls, ‘the younger the better’

[22 October 2020 21:31 · Graig Graziosi]

Maxwell spends 17 pages of deposition dancing around questions asking if she believed Epstein abused children

The interrogator, pointing Ms Maxwell to a police report in which Epstein is accused of sexually abusing a child and the criminal case that sent Epstein to jail for procuring prostitution from a girl under the age of 17, asks Ms Maxwell if she believes Epstein abused any minor children.  

The 17 pages that follow are an exhausting back and forth between the interrogator and Ms Maxwell, in which she either asks for the question to be reframed, or she insists that she is only aware of allegations of sexual assault stemming from Ms Giuffre, who she maintains is a liar.  

When asked not to consider Ms Giuffre, and answer the question based on her own beliefs, Ms Maxwell says she "can't" set Ms Giuffre aside, because she is participating in the deposition as part of a defamation case related to Ms Giuffre.  

Eventually, the exchange becomes heated, and Ms Maxwell's lawyer appears to have an outburst.

"Ask your next question. Don't keep asking the same question," Mr Pagliuca says.  

"You are no shouting, I want the record to reflect that you are interrupting the deposition," Ms McCawley replied. "I ask you to calm down, take a deep breath and please let me ask my questions."  

"Your behavior is inappropriate," Mr Pagliuca shoots back.  

Ms Maxwell does eventually admit that she knows Epstein is a registered sex offender.  

When asked why she still maintained contact with Epstein after he pled guilty to procuring prostitution from a minor, she said it was due to loyalty.  

"I'm a very loyal person and Jeffrey was very good to me when my father passed away, and I believe that you need to be a good friend in people's hour of need and I felt that it was a very thoughtful, nice thing for me to do to help in a very limited fashion which was helping if he had any issue with his homes, in terms of the staffing issues," she said. "It was very, very minor but I felt it was thoughtful in somebody's hour of need."

[22 October 2020 21:55 · Graig Graziosi]

Maxwell questioned over use of puppet in sex assaults

Court documents have revealed a bizarre exchange in which Ghislaine Maxwell was grilled over a “puppet” allegedly used during the assault of victims at a home belonging to Jeffrey Epstein, writes Louise Hall.

Court documents detailing Ms Maxwell's relationship with Epstein relating to a now-settled civil defamation lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre were unsealed and made public on Thursday.

During a drawn-out exchange in the 418-page 2016 deposition, prosecutors questioned Ms Maxwell in detail about the “puppet” in relation to an Epstein associate who’s name is redacted.

Prosecutors asked Ms Maxwell if she was ever in a room with the unnamed associate “ in New York in Jeffrey Epstein’s home where there was a puppet”.