While many are keeping close tabs on the Kyle Rittenhouse trial (I have decided that I really won’t touch that story until there’s a verdict), much less attention is given to the upcoming Ghislaine Maxwell trial, which is now in the process of jury selection, and is scheduled to begin on the 29th of this month.
Jury selection in the federal sex-trafficking trial for Ghislaine Maxwell got underway Tuesday in a Manhattan courtroom. Judge Alison Nathan questioned potential jurors about the case, looking to winnow down a jury pool of hundreds of people into a panel that will hear charges that Maxwell helped disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse minors as young as 14.
Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to the crimes. She’s accused of luring minors and young women into Epstein’s orbit from the 1990s into the early 2000s, grooming them for sexual abuse and sometimes participating in sexual encounters herself.
The trial is set to begin on Nov. 29, with 12 jurors and as many as six alternates.
Maxwell has remained in federal custody as she awaits trial.
Because it is a federal trial, we won’t have TV cameras in the courtroom.
One of the most intriguing elements of the trial is the role to be played by what prosecutors say is Maxwell’s book of contacts — an item that has long fascinated watchers of the case. Epstein and Maxwell moved among the world’s wealthy elite, and they were accused of arranging sexual massages and other encounters that paired girls and young women with older men.
Prosecutors say they only plan to use limited excerpts from the book. But they also say testimony during the trial will prove that the book belonged to Maxwell and that it contains “compelling evidence of her guilt,” prosecutors said in a recent court filing.
The FBI acquired Maxwell’s “black book” in 2009, when Epstein’s former butler, Alfredo Rodriguez, attempted to sell the book to an attorney representing one of Maxwell and Epstein’s alleged victims. The attorney alerted the authorities, and Rodriguez admitted that he took the book from Epstein’s Palm Beach residence, where he worked from 2004 to early 2005. Rodriguez later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice; he died after his criminal case ended.
“Died” huh?
Just dropped dead out of the blue, I’m sure.
How convenient.
It’s interesting that the FBI has had Maxwell’s “black book” since 2009. What have they been doing with it for the past decade?
The Daily Beast reports that Maxwell seems to be having the time of her life as her trial gets underway:
Ghislaine Maxwell appeared to be in noticeably high spirits this week when she returned to court for jury selection for her sex-trafficking trial.
The 59-year-old socialite sported a black turtleneck sweater and gray slacks, since the law prohibits jurors from seeing criminal defendants in chains or prison garb. Maxwell shared laughs, hugs and close conversations with her attorneys, and turned in her seat on Thursday to blow a flurry of kisses to her sister Isabel, who sat in the gallery. Leah Saffian, a California attorney and friend of Maxwell, was also in the front row this week. She declined to comment. (According to one Daily Mail report, Saffian staged the photo of Maxwell at an In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles when the press began searching for her in earnest after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide in August 2019.)
It was a far cry from Maxwell’s demeanor at a pretrial hearing on Nov. 1, when she was escorted into the Manhattan federal courtroom in shackles and a navy jumpsuit, reportedly after having to climb into a prison van on her hands and knees.
Sounds like a riot.
You wonder if Maxwell is behaving this way because she knows she’ll get off scot-free here.
After all, she, her father Robert, and Epstein himself were/are all CIA.
Alex Acosta, the former Secretary of Labor under Trump, was the US Attorney in Miami back in 2008 when Epstein was originally busted and charged with child prostitution, but was let off the hook with a remarkably lenient deal. Acosta, when asked by the Trump team about why he let Epstein off the hook, basically said that Epstein was CIA:
“Is the Epstein case going to cause a problem [for confirmation hearings]?” Acosta had been asked. Acosta had explained, breezily, apparently, that back in the day he’d had just one meeting on the Epstein case. He’d cut the non-prosecution deal with one of Epstein’s attorneys because he had “been told” to back off, that Epstein was above his pay grade. “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone,” he told his interviewers in the Trump transition, who evidently thought that was a sufficient answer and went ahead and hired Acosta. (The Labor Department had no comment when asked about this.)
That means CIA.
Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine’s father, was long rumored to have ties to numerous intelligence agencies, like the British MI6, Israeli Mossad, and even the Soviet KGB. He was most likely involved with the CIA, too.
It’s actually not even disputable that Robert Maxwell was Mossad; apparently six former heads of various Israeli intelligence services attended his funeral in 1991.
Ghislaine herself met Epstein as far back as the late 1980s, when they began dating. How did they meet? Apparently, according to a former Epstein business associate, it was through Robert Maxwell, who introduced the two way back in the day.
How did Robert Maxwell know Epstein? Intelligence connections, most likely. I would assume Robert was the one who recruited both his daughter and Jeffrey Epstein into intelligence.
How do you think Epstein was allowed to amass his mysterious fortune? It’s still unclear to this day exactly how he became a billionaire.
Epstein and Maxwell were likely CIA/intelligence assets whose job it was to provide the CIA with information it could use to blackmail wealthy and powerful people. Epstein and Maxwell would throw “Eyes Wide Shut”-style parties and record wealthy and powerful men being involved with underage girls.
It’s called a honey trap, and it’s nothing new. This article talks about how even before the CIA was founded in 1947, the OSS (the CIA’s precursor during WWII) was carrying out honey trap operations. And they apparently learned it from the mob, who had been honey trapping people for years.
The question here is whether Ghislaine Maxwell is going to blow the lid on the whole thing, or if she’s untouchable due to her intelligence connections.