Closing arguments began Monday in the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite accused of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein and his high-profile friends.
Prosecutor Alison Moe told the jury that the 59-year-old accused predator was "a grown woman who preyed on vulnerable kids" and described Maxwell as "dangerous."
Maxwell targeted young girls who were emotionally damaged, including one whose father had recently died and another who had been molested by her grandfather when she was 4 years old and whose mother was an addict, Moe said, adding, "Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing."
The prosecutor also told jurors she would list reasons why Maxwell was guilty of helping Epstein sexually take advantage of young girls. Among them is that the couple worked in tandem to exploit the teenagers. While it would be difficult for a much older man like Epstein to approach the juveniles alone, having Maxwell there gave him cover.
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Maxwell, a "posh, smiling, age-appropriate woman," lured them into a seedy sex trap that they could not escape, Moe said.
The prosecutor also pointed to the testimony of the alleged victims, who shared similar stories of Maxwell being an active participant.
"[Maxwell] ran the same playbook, over and over and over again, as she exploited young girls," Moe said. The playbook, the prosecutor said, was strikingly similar to how sexual predators "groom" their victims for abuse.
Moe said Maxwell would find a girl with a troubled background and that she and Epstein would then gain access to that girl by promising them scholarships or opportunities in music and art. In some cases, it would just be the lure of money. Once the girls were interested, the couple would invite them over to their lavish homes, without their parents or other adults present. At times, they picked up alleged victims from school and whisked them away.
"They were isolating these girls for a reason," Moe said.
Epstein and Maxwell would then shower the young women with praise, take them on lavish shopping sprees, and promise them a life different from the one they were living.
They "made these girls feel special," Moe said. "They were building trust for what was going to come next."
Maxwell would then get to work normalizing sexual encounters, which started with foot rubs and escalated to X-rated massages and eventually sex and orgies, Moe said.
One of the first alleged victims to testify in the case was "Jane," who "weighed 90 pounds and just finished the seventh grade," Moe said.
Jane was just 14 when Epstein and Maxwell approached her at a Michigan summer camp for talented youth.
"They started grooming her for abuse right away," Moe said, adding that the couple bought her clothes and that Maxwell started to normalize sex around the teenager by lying topless beside Epstein's pool with Jane.
Jane testified two weeks ago that after she started to let her guard down around the couple, they took her to Epstein's pool house. Maxwell showed her how to massage Epstein. And soon, the messages went from creepy to criminal, she said.
Prosecutors also brought up Maxwell and Epstein's little black book that contained a who's who of clients and contact information for young girls.
Ahead of closing arguments, federal prosecutors released a trove of new exhibits that included a video of the 2005 raid on Epstein's Palm Beach estate, as well as pictures of what they found inside, including numerous paintings of naked women hanging on the wall, a picture of a topless Maxwell lounging, and a black-and-white portrait of Maxwell holding a dog. There were also several pictures of Annie Farmer, one of Epstein's accusers, who testified last week that Maxwell molested her at a New Mexico ranch when she was a teenager.
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Maxwell, the 59-year-old daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell, faces six counts of trafficking-related charges, including enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts. She is also accused of conspiracy, including using one of Epstein's alleged victims to recruit other girls to participate in "paid sex acts with Epstein." She's also charged with perjury for allegedly lying under oath during depositions in a civil lawsuit against her.
Maxwell has denied the accusations. If convicted, she could spend decades behind bars.
The defense claimed Maxwell is a victim, a scapegoat, and a pawn in Epstein's seedy exploits, but prosecutors said she was a willing participant who knew right from wrong.
Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while waiting for his sex trafficking trial to start. Maxwell was arrested at her New Hampshire ranch in 2020.
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Her trial has gone by much faster than anticipated, with closing arguments coming at the start of the fourth week. The trial was supposed to last six weeks.
Maxwell appeared at a rare Saturday hearing, where her team of lawyers asked Judge Alison Nathan to refer to her as "Ms. Maxwell" and not "the defendant" when reading the jury instructions Monday afternoon following the defense's closing arguments.