NEW YORK - Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite, has been accused of not just enabling Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls but also of committing similar crimes herself.
She was previously accused of having sex with groups of girls as young as 15, according to newly unsealed court documents.
The “shocking claim” is contained in testimony given by Jeffrey Epstein’s primary accuser, Virginia Giuffre, to investigators during a 2015 libel case against Maxwell, the Daily Mail reports.
Hundreds of pages of court documents involving British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein’s who has been accused of enabling the late financier’s sexual abuse of underage girls, were unsealed on Thursday night following a months-long court battle over the documents.
Maxwell’s lawyers filed multiple challenges – most recently on Thursday – in a bid to block the release of the documents, which they described as “extremely personal, confidential and subject to considerable abuse by the media.”
But US district judge Loretta Preska, who ordered the unsealing of the documents earlier this month, roundly rejected these requests. On Thursday afternoon, Preska admonished Maxwell for the “eleventh-hour request for reconsideration.”
“The Court is troubled – but not surprised – that Ms. Maxwell has yet again sought to muddy the waters,” Preska wrote.
The documents come from a now-settled lawsuit filed in 2015 against Maxwell by Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Giuffre has accused Maxwell of acting as Epstein’s madame and helping him traffick her to influential men around the world, including allegedly Prince Andrew, former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and attorney Alan Dershowitz. Giuffre claims Maxwell recruited her when she was just 15. Prince Andrew, Richardson and Dershowitz have denied the allegations.
As Thursday’s document release shows, Giuffre has also accused Maxwell herself of engaging in sexual relations with underage girls.
Last August, another cache of court documents from the Giuffre v. Maxwell suit was made public. Hours later, Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell, where he’d been awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell was arrested earlier this month and charged with several federal crimes, including sex trafficking and the enticement of minors. She denies the charges, has pleaded not guilty and is being held in a Brooklyn jail pending trial.
The newly released documents appear to contain more damning details about the allegations against Maxwell and Epstein – and their famous friends.
More additional documents from the 2015 suit, including a deposition related to Maxwell’s sex life, are expected to be made public on 3 August. Maxwell and her legal team have also sought to block their release.
