Ghislaine Maxwell convicted of sex-trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein

Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday evening of recruiting and grooming underage girls for years as Jeffrey Epstein’s madam — capping a stunning fall from grace for the British socialite, who could now spend the rest of her life behind bars.

Maxwell, who turned 60 on Christmas Day, sat still as the unanimous verdict on five of six counts was read aloud. When it was done, she poured herself a cup of water from a Fiji bottle and took a swig, then conferred with her lawyer.

She showed no emotion as she was hauled out of federal court in Lower Manhattan in front of her siblings, who were seated in the front row.

The jury deliberated for five full days, requesting troves of evidence and sordid witness testimony that was presented during the month-long case, before finding Maxwell guilty. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

“The road to justice has been far too long. But, today, justice has been done,” US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in a statement. “I want to commend the bravery of the girls — now grown women — who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom. Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made this case, and today’s result, possible.”

Maxwell’s lawyers had argued in closing statements that she was an innocent scapegoat in the Epstein saga — while prosecutors convinced the 12 jurors she was a “sophisticated predator” who exploited young, vulnerable girls.

The Oxford-educated heiress — youngest child of the late publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell — was convicted on nearly all counts, including sex-trafficking of minors, the top charge that carries a maximum of 40 years in prison.

That count relates to the allegations of one of the four accusers, who testified using her first name, Carolyn, detailing how she gave hundreds of sexualized massages to Epstein as a teenager living in Palm Beach, Florida — sessions that Maxwell helped arrange.

The other counts Maxwell was found guilty of were: 

• Count 1: conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
• Count 3: conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
• Count 4: transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
• Count 5: conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, which carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison.

She was acquitted of Count 2, enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, which related to allegations from a woman going by the pseudonym “Jane,” who testified that she was sexually abused by Epstein at his Palm Beach estate when she was 14 in 1994. Jurors earlier in the week indicated they needed more clarity on the charge, asking Judge Alison Nathan for the definition of “enticement.”

Since the start of Maxwell’s trial Nov. 29, prosecutors sought to portray her to jurors as inexorably linked to Epstein, including in his pursuit of underage girls to sexually abuse. 

“Maxwell was Jeffrey Epstein’s right hand,” Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe said in her closing statement. 

“Maxwell and Epstein were partners. They were partners in crime who sexually exploited young girls together,” Moe said. 

Over the course of three weeks, prosecutors called two dozen witnesses, including four accusers who detailed how Maxwell groomed them for abuse by Epstein — and how she at times participated in the sexual contact. 

The first accuser to take the stand, Jane, told the jury that she met Maxwell and Epstein when the pair approached her at a Michigan arts camp in the early 1990s when she was 14 years old. 

From there, the teen was groomed for abuse at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion by Maxwell, who exposed her to nudity and sexualized conversations in an attempt to normalize the behavior, prosecutors alleged. 

“She would ask me what I was up to, if I had a boyfriend,” Jane testified, adding that Maxwell claimed to her about dating, “Once you f–k them, you can always f–k them again because they’re grandfathered in.”

At Epstein’s mansion, Maxwell and the twisted millionaire moneyman abused the teen together and in group sex sessions with other women, Jane testified. 

In 1994, Jane said, the financier and Maxwell led her upstairs to his bedroom, moved her over to the bed and “took their clothes off.

“They started to sort of like fondle each other,” she said, adding that they were “casually giggling” as she stood there.

“He asked me to take my top off,” killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial in Manhattan in 2019.

“Then there were hands everywhere, and Jeffrey proceeded to masturbate again. And Ghislaine was like rubbing on him, kissing on him.”

Maxwell and Epstein repeated this “playbook” to lure in other underage girls for him to abuse, including the three other victims who testified at trial, prosecutors said. 

In most cases, the pair preyed on vulnerable girls from single-parent homes, prosecutors said. 

“Selecting these girls was predatory behavior. Maxwell and Epstein picked vulnerable girls,” Moe said in her closing statement. 

Another accuser, Carolyn, said she was introduced to Maxwell and Epstein at age 14 through Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a teen she knew from her West Palm Beach neighborhood. 

Carolyn had been sexually abused by her grandfather starting when she was 4 years old and raised by her mother, an alcoholic.

Over a number of years, Carolyn massaged Epstein more than 100 times at his Palm Beach estate — and “something sexual happened every single time,” she told jurors. 

Maxwell would call her or her boyfriend at the time to schedule the massages, Carolyn added. 

At least once, Maxwell groped the teen as she was getting undressed and preparing to give Epstein a massage in the Florida home.

“She came in and felt my boobs and my hips and my buttocks,” Carolyn said, her voice breaking as she recalled the touching.

Maxwell told her that she “had a great body for Mr. Epstein and his friends. She just said that I had good body type,” she added.

At the same time Maxwell and Epstein were luring these girls away from their families to sexually abuse them, the older pair was socializing with the rich and elite.

Witnesses recalled seeing photographs at Epstein’s Florida mansion that showed the financier with leaders ranging from Fidel Castro to Pope John Paul II. Epstein also had entertained former President Bill Clinton and Maxwell’s pal, Britain’s Prince Andrew.

Another accuser who testified under the pseudonym Kate said Maxwell touted her relationships with the rich and powerful as she lured her into Epstein’s orbit.

The disgraced socialite “seemed to know everybody,” Kate told the jury.

“She was friends with Prince Andrew, friends with Donald Trump. Sometimes their names would just come up or she would be talking on the phone about them with me present,” she said.

It was precisely because of these connections that Epstein and Maxwell felt they could get away with their crimes for so long, prosecutors said.

That all changed with Maxwell’s arrest and at her trial — as four of her accusers, now grown women, pointed her out to the jury as the woman who facilitated their sexual abuse.

“The defendant never thought that those teenage girls would have the strength to report what happened to them. In her eyes, they were just trash, beneath her,” Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey told jurors in her rebuttal statement at the close of the trial.

“Who would believe Jane or Kate or Carolyn or Annie over Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, who rubbed shoulders with presidents and celebrities and business leaders?” Comey said.

“But the defendant didn’t count on those teenage girls growing up into the women who testified at this trial; women who would be willing to take that stand and tell the truth about what happened,” Comey said.

Maxwell’s family is planning to appeal the verdict. “We firmly believe in our sister’s innocence,” they said in a statement.