The End - Ghislaine Maxwell Trial, Week 3 Day
“Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond reasonable doubt, so there’s no need for me to testify.” - Ghislaine Maxwell
Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense rested today after calling just eight defense witnesses over two days.
“At this time, the defense rests,” said Maxwell’s attorney Bobbi Sternheim at 3:57 PM.
It came after a long two hour pause in the proceedings where the defense and prosecution worked out a series of stipulations, or agreed upon facts, and a lackluster series of witnesses from a list that had been substantially reduced.
Judge Alison Nathan grew frustrated with Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense team in the morning. She warned the defense that they shouldn’t draw out their case unnecessarily. Lawyers for the government accused the defense of trying to call in new witnesses at the 11th hour despite having five full days, three of them business days, to prepare their case before it opened on Thursday.
“Our clients’ life is on the line,'' Laura Menninger said defensively, “and we’re being given one day to make our defense.” She said that she understood Nathan’s desire to run a tight ship and keep the trial moving in a speedy and efficient manner, “but to be honest your honor, it’s a lot of work.”
The result of this back and forth was the shaving of yet another witness. Alexander Hamilton, who was scheduled to testify by video from the UK, would have been called by the government to undermine the idea that Kate had been a victim of Epstein and Maxwell.
Sternheim said Hamilton wouldn’t be able to testify because of technical challenges which would make it difficult to show documents to the witness while allowing the public to still see him by video.
But the government said this was just a pretext.
“From our perspective, this was not a matter of technical difficulties.” Instead, it was a “decision defense counsel has made.”
Sternheim disagreed with this, and implied that the government was putting pressure on her witness.
“Detective Burns kept calling Hamilton, who is unwell, which was unnerving,” she said. The government said this was a mis-characterization. Burns is one of the lead investigators for the FBI for the government’s case. Amanda Young, his partner in the investigation, also testified today.
“Needless to say, there’s a pandemic,” Nathan said, eager to wrap things up as quickly as possible. “We don’t want to needlessly delay.”
The defense also argued in the morning about flying a witness in to testify on Monday. The delay would have been necessary because the witness lives in the UK.
That witness would have been the 81 year old owner of the Nag’s Head Pub in London, located across the street from Maxwell’s home at 44 Kinnerton Street in Belgravia. He lived in an apartment over the pub and would be able to testify as to the exact year that Maxwell began living at the residence, the defense said.
“He can verify the fact that she didn’t take occupancy until she bought the property,” Menninger told the court.
That would be relevant because the defense claims that Kate was incorrect or dishonest in her testimony about which year she met Maxwell. Kate testified for the government that she had been introduced by Maxwell to Epstein at Maxwell’s London home when she was just 17 - and that she’d had sex with Epstein repeatedly with Maxwell’s knowledge and encouragement.
The defense says that their witness’ testimony could establish this definitively, because he knew when Maxwell took up residence in the neighborhood.
But by the end of the day the defense withdrew this witness too, following hours of conferring by both parties.
The defense was also eager in the morning to get Kelly Bovino to testify. She was contacted for the first time two and a half weeks ago - on December 1st - and had refused to reply to multiple attempts to contact her. Had she been called, she would have been questioned about allegations involving group sex and sexualized massages with some of the accuser witnesses when they were underage.
“The defense has had extensive time to raise this issue,” the government said. The judge was irritated with the defense’s request, and told them to submit a written application within half an hour.
“We strongly disagree with the suggestion that the defense has been rushed,” said prosecutor Maurene Comey.
The judge did receive a written application to send marshals to arrest Kelly, but at the end of the day it was a moot point. The defense had decided not to call her, so there was no need to put out a warrant on her. They did name her by her last name though, something they’d avoided doing before.
This meant that after Eva Dubin’s testimony (see tomorrow morning’s update), they were out of witnesses well before the end of the day. The defense spent their time working out stipulations instead, coming to an agreement on facts with the prosecution, like that the Lion King opened in previews at the New Amsterdam Theater on October 15th, 1997, and on Broadway on November 13th, 1997, and that Mike Wallace was born on May 9th, 1918.
They also established that Robert Glassman, Jane’s attorney, had spoken with the government on August 17th, 2021, before the government charged the case. He and Jane discussed whether or not to participate in the case, the parties stipulated, and he told her doing so would be the morally correct thing to do. He also told Jane, the parties agreed, that Glassman told Jane that cooperating would “help her case.”
Before the defense rested, the judge asked Ghislaine Maxwell if she would testify in her own defense.
Maxwell answered in a perfectly clipped British accent: “Your honor, the government has not proven its case beyond reasonable doubt, so there’s no need for me to testify.”