Ghislaine Maxwell: 418-page deposition detailing Jeffrey Epstein relationship is made public for first time

A federal court has unsealed a deposition provided by Ghislaine Maxwell, a former socialite and confidant to Jeffrey Epstein, featuring 418 pages of sworn testimony surrounding her controversial relationship with the disgraced billionaire and alleged sex trafficker.

The records, which date back to court depositions taken in 2016, discuss a defamation suit brought by Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, which was eventually settled. 

Ms Maxwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit and groom underage girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sexual acts in the mid-1990s, and not guilty to perjury for having denied involvement in any such scheme when she gave her deposition under oath.

Ms Giuffre has said Epstein kept her as a "sex slave" with Ms Maxwell's assistance.

US District Judge Loretta Preska in New York ordered a transcript of the testimony and other documents to be released by 9am on Thursday.

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Lawyers for Ms Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend and longtime associate, had argued she believed the deposition would remain confidential and that releasing it would violate her constitutional right against self-incrimination.

The lawyers had also argued that making the deposition public could imperil Ms Maxwell's ability to get a fair trial, because jurors might hold its contents against her.

"If the unsealing order goes into effect, it will forever let the cat out of the bag," and "intimate, sensitive, and personal information" about Ms Maxwell might "spread like wildfire across the Internet," her lawyers said in August.

A trial is scheduled for July 2021.

Ms Maxwell was arrested on July 2 in Bradford, New Hampshire, where authorities said she was hiding on a property she bought in December in an all-cash transaction with her identity shielded.

She is locked up in a Brooklyn jail after the judge in her criminal case called her an unacceptable flight risk.

Her deposition and other documents were cleared for release after the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Monday rejected her "meritless" arguments that her interests outweighed the presumption the public should see the materials.

Ms Giuffre, who has been one of Epstein's most visible accusers, and the Miami Herald newspaper, which investigated Epstein's conduct and successful bid in 2007 to avoid federal sex trafficking charges, had sought the unsealing.

Epstein killed himself at age 66 in August 2019 at a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges announced the previous month.

He had previously escaped federal prosecution by pleading guilty in 2008 to Florida state prostitution charges, an agreement now widely considered too lenient.

Giuffre has said she was trafficked by Epstein and forced to have sex with his friends, including the British prince when she was 17 years old.

In an interview broadcast in December 2019, Giuffre told BBC Panorama she had been brought to London in 2001 by Epstein and taken to meet the prince, one of three occasions when she claimed to have sex with Prince Andrew.

Prince Andrew has denied the allegations.

Reuters contributed to this report