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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document657_ Filed 04/29/22 Page1of45
USDC SDNY
DOCUMENT |
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT ELECTRONICALLY FILED
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK DOC #:
DATE FILED: 4/29/22
United States of America,
20-CR-330 (AJN)
—V—
OPINION & ORDER
Ghislaine Maxwell,
Defendant.
ALISON J. NATHAN, Circuit Judge, sitting by designation:
In 2020, the Defendant Ghislaine Maxwell was indicted for her participation in a scheme
to entice, transport, and traffic underage girls for sexual abuse by and with Jeffrey Epstein, her
longtime companion. The Government at trial presented extensive witness testimony from
multiple victim witnesses and others, as well as corroborating documentary and physical
evidence. The testimony and other trial evidence established the Defendant’s role in grooming
and recruiting underage girls and using the cover of massage to perpetrate sexual abuse.
Following the thirteen-day trial, the Court submitted to the jury the six counts in the
Indictment. The jury deliberated for over five days and returned a verdict of guilty on five of the
six counts. Two of these counts of conviction charged the Defendant with substantive violations
of federal statutes that target sexual abuse of minors—the Mann Act as to Count Four and the
Trafficking Victims Protection Act as to Count Six. The other three counts of conviction,
Counts One, Three, and Five, charged the Defendant with conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to
violate those same statutes from 1994 to 2004.
Before the Court are the Defendant’s post-trial motions making four alternative
arguments for vacating some or all of her five counts of conviction. First, the Defendant argues
that judgment may be imposed on only one of the three conspiracy counts (i.e., Counts One,
DOJ-OGR-00010367