Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking case plan to reveal emails showing her setting up ‘powerful men with women they would like’.
In a court filing, the lead attorney claims the messages show the 59-year-old British socialite ‘using her ability to provide access to women as a form of social currency’.
Maxwell, the alleged madam for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, was ‘eager to please’ the men and wanted to ‘ingratiate’ herself with them by making connections with women.
Waiting for trial: Ghislaine maxwell is charged with trafficking young girls in order to have sex.
In the 84-page document, there is no mention of names.
New York prosecutors plan to offer several emails that show ‘the defendant took steps to please other influential men [than Epstein] by providing them access to women she selected for them’.
It claims: ‘These exhibits show (1) the defendant’s willingness to facilitate encounters between powerful men and women they would like, and (2) the defendant’s understanding that providing such access is a way to ingratiate herself with powerful men.
Prince Andrew, Virginia Roberts and Maxwell, pictured 2001. Virginia asserts that Prince Andrew had had sex in her presence, even though she was ‘trafficked. Prince Andrew claims that he did not do anything wrong and does not remember ever meeting Virginia.
‘At trial, it may not be obvious to a jury that an adult woman would be willing to provide Jeffrey Epstein with access to young girls.
‘These emails make clear that the defendant was willing to serve in such a role, and that she was eager to please wealthy and influential men by providing them with access to women.’
Maxwell’s lawyers said that if she was trying to ‘ingratiate herself with a friend, so what?’
Their response document states: ‘If her motive is to permit adult women to date her single friends, then it is not to pick up schoolgirls off the street to give “sexual massages” to Jeffrey Epstein.
‘And if she already had access to other powerful and influential men who were in her life, she would not need her friendship or access to Jeffrey Epstein.’
Jeffrey Epstein (pictured), committed suicide in 2019, while waiting for his trial in America on charges of sex trafficking.
The matter of the emails is set to be debated today at the final hearing before Maxwell’s trial.
Tomorrow’s public phase, also known as voir dire or jury selection, will begin at the Manhattan courtroom.
Opening statements will be due November 29.
Maxwell will be charged with six offenses: enticement, trafficking in children, perjury, and enticement of minors.
Robert Maxwell’s daughter, a disgraced businessman, denies the charges. The sentences can carry up to 80 year imprisonment.
She is being held in a 6ft by 9ft cell at Brooklyn’s bleak Metropolitan Detention Centre and has set aside £5.2million to pay for her defence.
Maxwell ‘hired lookalikes to throw pursuers off her trail’
Ghislaine Maxill hired a security agency that employed decoys after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide, according to reports.
A former paratrooper ran a UK-based business that sent lookalikes to Paris in order to give her the impression she was still there.
Photo of decoys: A woman looking similar to Maxwell, wearing a shawl and walking side-by-side with a man with strong resemblances with her brother Kevin.
Decoy: Likenesses to Maxwell in Paris
The extraordinary claim by security expert Matt Hellyer came as Maxwell revealed she gives cooking lessons to her prison guards and gave them a five-day meal plan for £7.50.
When guards come from outside the city, they ask for her tips about her favorite pizza joints in New York. She then shares her top books and recommendations with them.
She also enjoys playing games with the warders, whom she claims are making her life in remand miserable. ‘I play peek-a-boo, hiding behind pillars and the guards join in.
‘There are always smiles all round,’ she was quoted by the Mail on Sunday as saying.