Ghislaine Maxwell's attorneys argued that their client is being used as a scapegoat for Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes targeting underage girls.
Monday, November 29 marked day one of Maxwell's high-profile sex trafficking trial, which saw prosecutors give a damning opening statement against the British socialite.
It was alleged by the prosecution team that for 10 years, the 59-year-old defendant helped recruit underage girls as young as 14 for her ex-partner Epstein to abuse. It was also claimed that she directly engaged in the abuse, having allegedly had "group sexual encounters" with the girls between 1994 and 1997.
Later on in the trial, held in federal court in Manhattan, Maxwell's legal team gave a statement of their own.
According to her defense attorneys, Maxwell is unfairly being blamed for the crimes of the deceased convicted sex offender.
Per Insider, one of her defense attorneys, Bobbi Sternheim, argued that the trial is essentially being used as a means to compensate for the fact that Epstein died in jail and thus escaped a conviction on newer charges.
Sternheim told the jury: "Epstein's death left a gaping hole for the pursuit of justice for those women. She is filling that hole and filling that chair."
The defense lawyer also compared Maxwell to Eve from the Bible, stating that her client was "blamed for the behavior of bad men."
Although Maxwell had a close relationship with Epstein before he died by suicide in August 2019, Sternheim referred to the billionaire financier as a "manipulator" who "compartmentalized" his life, adding that Maxwell had played no role in his crimes.
The lawyer told the jurors about Epstein's supposed "charisma" and "charm". She even dubbed him "a 21st century James Bond".
Sternheim also cast doubt on Maxwell's four accusers, claiming that their own lawyers had manipulated them into agreeing to exaggerate their claims to attain hefty payouts from the Epstein Victims' Compensation Program.
Maxwell is charged with six counts alleging that she recruited, groomed, and abused four underage girls between 1994 and 2004, in both the US and UK. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial is expected to go on for six weeks.
