Closing Arguments - Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
“Ghislaine Maxwell was a sophisticated predator, who knew exactly what she was doing,” said Alison Moe this morning. She was giving the prosecution’s closing argument in the US vs. Maxwell trial.
“She ran the same playbook again, again, and again,” Moe continued.
“Ghislaine Maxwell was dangerous - she was a woman who preyed on vulnerable kids…she targeted a girl whose father just died,” the prosecution said, as well as one whose mother was an alcoholic.
“It is time to hold her accountable.”
The courtroom was full for the closing arguments. By 6:30 in the morning, before the sun came out, a long line snaked out of the Thurgood Marshall Courthouse in downtown Manhattan.
“Maxwell was key to the whole operation,” Moe told the jury.
Kevin and Isabelle Maxwell, Ghislaine’s siblings and fixtures and the courthouse, sat in the front bench in the courtroom. With them for the first time were Ian and Christine Maxwell, her two other siblings.
“Epstein liked underage girls,” argued Moe. “He liked to touch underage girls. Maxwell knew it.”
Moe explained the government’s case over two hours and ten minutes. She detailed Maxwell’s role: to make girls feel comfortable with Epstein in situations they never would have felt comfortable in otherwise.
“She allows [Epstein] to silence those alarm bells,” the girls would have from the interest of a middle age man, Moe said.
Maxwell was “the right hand to a multi-millionaire,” according to Moe, and she helped him traffic girls to his properties all around the world, from Zorro Ranch in New Mexico, to his apartment in Paris.
In slides visible to the jury, but not the public, Moe showed pictures that had been entered into evidence in the second week of the case.
“What you’re looking at in these,” Moe said, “is two people in a sexual relationship.”
In one photo that the jury saw, described Moe, Maxwell and Epstein swam together naked in a swimming pool.
Moe went over the “playbook” that Maxwell ran, going over the steps of grooming that Dr. Lisa Rocchio, a forensic psychologist, had testified to for the government.
It was not an accident, Moe said, that all these girls came from single mother households. Maxwell and Epstein “selected these girls carefully.”
Kate, said Moe, “was dazzled by this impressive women who made her feel special.” Carolyn had been sexually abused by family members before she met Maxwell and Epstein.
“Selecting these girls was predatory behavior,” Moe concluded.
She said that Epstein and Maxwell made these girls feel special.
“They were building trust for what was going to come next,” Moe explained to the jury.
What came next was Maxwell breaking down boundaries further, Moe said.
“Maxwell touched these girls’ bodies….when they were kids in a massage room.”
Jane, Moe said, “weighed 90 pounds and she’d just finished 7th grade” when Maxwell and Epstein met her at Interlochen, a summer camp for musically gifted children in Michigan. Epstein had a lodge built there with money he donated.
Moe reminded the jury of a letter that had been entered into evidence. In 1994 the camp administration had found an envelope in Epstein’s lodge belonging to Ghislaine Maxwell. They sent her the letter to try to return it to her. This proved that Maxwell had indeed been there in 1994, argued the government.
“They bought her white underwear,” Moe said. Jane saw Maxwell topless by the pool. And the jury knows this to be true, Moe said, “because now you see Maxwell by the pool too,” she said referencing a photo being shown to the jury of Epstein and Maxwell swimming naked in their Palm Beach swimming pool.
“None of this was normal,” Moe said. “It was not OK. It was disturbing - they were molesting an underage girl…that’s what they did.”
“Does it sound normal that two adults were spending their weekends with a 14 year old girl?” Moe asked.
There are legitimate ways to fund scholarships for people who need them, Moe said. But these weren’t the avenues Epstein and Maxwell took, because their ultimate goal wasn’t philanthropy, but abuse. There was no scholarship foundation. There was no application form.
“To qualify,” Moe said, “you just had to be a pretty, young, vulnerable girl. That’s who they were targeting.”
Moe said this was “a textbook case of child sexual abuse.”
She also reminded the jury of Annie Farmer’s diary, where she wrote about her experience with Epstein in a movie theater in New York.
“This diary tells you that this isn’t a new story.”
In a movie theater in New York City, Farmer testified in court two weeks ago, and recorded in her journal back in 1996, Epstein started caressing her hand and rubbing her foot and leg. When he would turn to look at Maria Farmer, Annie’s sister, he would stop, presumably to hide this behavior from Maria, who was his adult employee at the time.
Later, when he had Annie alone with him and Maxwell in a New Mexico theater, he did the same thing. But when he talked to Maxwell while rubbing Annie, he felt no need to stop or hide his behavior.
“He was doing something he did in New York,” Moe said, “but this time he was doing it openly.” In effect, he didn’t have to worry about what he did in front of Maxwell - she didn’t care and was happy to facilitate the behavior.
Moe then retold the story Annie had testified to of how Maxwell showed Farmer to massage Epstein’s feet.
“Your common sense tells you,” Moe appealed to the jury, that “it is not normal for a grown woman to show a 16 year old girl how to to massage.”
“She knew exactly what she was doing…[she was] moving the line…She was trying to get these girls to touch Jeffrey Epstein…she was doing it because she was a predator.”
Moe also analyzed how Maxwell’s mood changed when Annie resisted Epstein (“a man in his 40s”) getting into her bed to “cuddle.” Annie went into the bathroom and locked the door behind her, then waited for Epstein to leave the room. Moe recounted Annie’s testimony how as soon as Maxwell saw that Annie wouldn’t be an easy target, she lost interest in her.
“When her scheme failed,” said Moe, “she could drop the act.”
Moe also described how the prosecution reckoned that government exhibit 52, the “little black book,” was such a critical piece of evidence.
“It is a powerfully incriminating document,” she said.
The section under ‘massage’ included contact information of some of the girls who testified for the prosecution. And among the numbers listed for them was a section for parents.
“When you contact a professional masseuse you don’t need to call their parents,” Moe pointed out.
“This book makes clear that some of these entries are for kids.”
Moe also advanced the idea that Maxwell’s motivation was financial. She pointed to the bank transfer records that the government had entered into evidence during their case. This showed over $30 million being sent to Maxwell from Epstein between 1999 and 2007.
What was Maxwell doing that was worth that amount of money? Moe asked.
“It was payment for committing terrible crimes with Jeffrey Epstein,” Moe proposed.
“It’s obvious Ghislaine Maxwell spent a decade aiding and abetting Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes,” Moe said. “She was his co-conspirator.”
Moe told the jury that Maxwell getting Jane to travel on a plane was inducement. “They were getting her to travel so she could be molested.”
Moe stressed the potency of the witness testimony, highlighting the government’s case that the evidence they marshaled proves the credibility of the witnesses. And if the jurors found the witnesses credible and believed their testimony, then Maxwell was guilty.
“Ghislaine Maxwell made her own choices…she was a grown woman who knew exactly what she was doing,” Moe charged.
Moe also challenged the defense’s expert witness, Elizabeth Loftus. Loftus testified about her theory of memory, specifically the idea that memory can be contaminated and memories can be implanted into people by suggestion.
She discussed a study Loftus adduced in her testimony which demonstrated that certain memories could be implanted in people’s minds. But, she pointed out, one experience which failed to be implanted into any of the subject’s memories was that of getting a rectal enema; an intensely physical, intimate, and uncomfortable experience.
“No one had a false memory of getting a rectal enema,” Moe said. “That kind of experience is not the kind of thing you can trick someone into remembering.”
She also addressed the unique nature of memories of childhood sex abuse.
"Your common sense tells you that being molested is not something that you forget: forever.”