Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
- A judge has unsealed 1,000 pages of court records about Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.
- They show testimony accusing Maxwell of telling girls to perform sexual favors for her and Epstein.
- Documents show their alleged sex-trafficking ring, and Maxwell’s lawyers’ moves to hide the records.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein forced a group of underage girls to engage in an elaborate sexual performance as they watched, according to witness testimony.
It’s the latest piece of information about Ghislaine Maxwell’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and their alleged sex-trafficking of young girls, which Maxwell has fought for years to keep sealed in court.
The witness “testified that he watched Maxwell direct a room full of underage girls to kiss, dance, and touch one another in a sexual way for [Maxwell] and Epstein to watch,” the court records say.
The detail is included among a batch of more than 100 records unsealed in federal court in Manhattan Wednesday night, running to more than 1,000 pages.
The records are part of a yearslong civil lawsuit between Virginia Roberts Giuffre and Maxwell, an associate of the disgraced and now-dead financier between the 1990s and early 2000s. Giuffre has used the lawsuit as a vehicle to unseal records related to Maxwell’s conduct and shed light on her relationship with Epstein and their alleged sexual abuse and sex-trafficking scheme.
Maxwell, in a separate case, currently faces criminal charges for her conduct with Epstein, which prosecutors say amount to sex-trafficking young girls, grooming them for sexual abuse, and participating in sexual abuse herself. She also faces charges for lying about her actions in a deposition taken in the civil case with Giuffre.
Judge Loretta Preska has, over the past several years, ordered batches of documents in the civil case to be unsealed after lengthy battles between Giuffre's and Maxwell's lawyers over what should remain redacted.
Depositions show the depth of Epstein and Maxwell's alleged sexual abuse
The latest unsealed documents include the anonymous testimony about Maxwell and Epstein directing the group to conduct a sexual performance. It also includes testimony from people close to them in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the years they allegedly ran the trafficking ring.
Accusers and prosecutors say Maxwell was instrumental in a plan that involved bringing teenage girls into Epstein's home and making them think they would give him a massage, before grooming them to provide sex for him and Maxwell. In her depositions, Maxwell repeatedly testified that she believed all the girls were professional masseuses.
Here are some of the details included in the new filings:
- Joseph Recarey, a detective who observed Epstein, testified he saw between 30 and 33 different girls arrive at Epstein's Florida home for "massages." Epstein ultimately took a plea deal in 2008 where he pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution and spent 13 months on work release in county jail.
- Juan Alessi, who testified he worked as a housekeeper for Epstein for more than a decade, said he saw more than 100 girls arrive at the home for "massages."
- The records show that, in 2016, lawyers for Giuffre and Maxwell went through a protracted court battle over Giuffre's medical records, which included a deposition of a doctor to speak about Giuffre's reliability.
- Also in 2016, Maxwell's lawyers went to great lengths to force Giuffre's lawyers to produce records, including asking for sanctions against them. Maxwell's attorneys argued that Giuffre's lawyers weren't cooperative enough in producing evidence they believed could disprove the case, and said they misrepresented the testimony of affiants. Their attempts were unsuccessful.
The unsealed documents also include handwritten notes by Epstein, dated 2004 and 2005, where he appears to coordinate his personal affairs with Maxwell.
In one note, Epstein appears to try to resolve a scheduling issue about a person whose name is redacted.
"She is wondering if 2:30 is OK cuz she needs to stay in school," Epstein wrote.
Netflix
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 in New York, on charges of sex-trafficking children in Florida and New York, but died by suicide in jail one month later, before going to trial.
Maxwell, arrested in July 2020, is currently held in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center ahead of her trial this summer.
Her lawyers have also fought protracted battles in that case, unsuccessfully arguing that Maxwell should be released on bail.
Earlier this week, they asked the court to drop all the charges against Maxwell, saying that the grand jury pool that indicted her didn't have enough Black and Hispanic jurors.
- Read more:
- Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to drop charges against her, arguing the grand jury pool didn't have enough Black or Hispanic people
- A judge denied Ghislaine Maxwell's renewed bid to be released on bail, saying she's still a flight risk
- Ghislaine Maxwell says her marriage will keep her in the US if she's released on bail. She previously said she was getting a divorce.
- 'She had lost over 15 pounds, and she is sustaining hair loss': Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers and Federal Bureau of Prisons clash on Maxwell's conditions in new court documents