In the Ghislaine Maxwell criminal trial, it’s a case of youth on one side and experience on the other.
All four of the prosecuting attorneys who are trying to place Ghislaine Maxiwell behind bars for many decades, they’re all in their 30s and have a combined age just 138 years.
Opposing them, Maxwell’s quartet of defense attorneys have an average age of 58 and in total are 94 years older than their adversaries.
‘It’s like The Rolling Stones versus The Killers,’ one court watcher told DailyMail.com. ‘They’re both heavyweights, although one has been around a lot longer.
‘It is very noticeable that Maxwell’s lawyers are not only older, but significantly more experienced.’
Maxwell will be 60 years old on Christmas Day. He is charged with enticing children to have sex, trafficking in sex, and transporting minors across state borders to participate in illegal sex activities. Maxwell also faces three charges of conspiracy.
Lead defense counsel Bobbi Sternheim, 67, gives off a retired punk vibe with her oversize blazers, and hipster gran glasses,’ said one court-watcher. Sternheim’s case relies heavily on getting the jury to believe — in her words — that ‘Maxwell is not Epstein’ and that she is a scapegoat who has been charged to allow the government to save some face for not stopping his suicide
Lara Pomerantz (37 years) is the oldest prosecution witness. ‘It’s like the Rolling Stones versus The Killers,’ one court watcher said. ‘They’re both heavyweights, although one has been around a lot longer’
All the charges relate to Jeffrey Epstein’s friendship, a child molester convicted. Jeffrey was hanged in an apparent self-inflicted suicide at a New York federal prison. He was awaiting trial.
Maxwell could face a sentence of up to 80 years imprisonment if he is found guilty on all the charges.
After being detained in Bradford, New Hampshire in July, she is currently in federal custody. Her December purchase price was just $1 million.
DEFENSE TEAMS
Maxwell, Maxwell’s daughter, is the British press baron and swindler of millions. She drowned from his yacht, then fell off, so Maxwell carefully selected the team that she feels has the greatest chance to keep her free.
Bobbi Starheim, 68 is the leader of her defense team. This colorful personality is in sharp contrast with the majority of gray and black suits worn by lawyers.
‘She gives off a retired punk vibe with her oversize blazers, and hipster gran glasses,’ said the court-watcher. ‘She looks kind of badass.’
Sternheim’s previous most high-profile client was Osama bin Laden henchman Khaled al-Fawwaz, who was accused of the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, that killed 224 people, including a dozen Americans.
The biography of her law firm notes that she convinced the US attorney general not to authorize a federal case against death penalty. She also claims she filed a discrimination lawsuit against the Saudi Mission.
The Maxwell trial’s opening statement, which lasted over an hour and was very relatable, was persuasive. Even though it relied on victim shame, her powerful speech about “money, memory and manipulating” was well received by the court.
Sternheim’s case relies heavily on getting the jury to believe — in her words — that ‘Maxwell is not Epstein’ and that she is a scapegoat who has been charged to allow the government to save some face for not stopping his suicide.
‘The charges against Ghislaine Maxwell are for things that Jeffrey Epstein did — but she is not Jeffrey Epstein,’ she told jurors.
Christian Everdell is a defense attorney who specializes in white-collar offenses like money laundering, fraud and Secrecy Act violations. Bobbi Sternheim was once an Osama Bin Laden’s henchmen during a bombing trial.
Jeffrey Pagliuci and Laura Menninger, both Denver-based attorneys, are important members of Maxwell’s defense team. Menninger’s court appearances can be impetuous and sarcastic. Maxwell hears Maxwell from Pagliuci, who tells her to’sleep tight’ and ‘don’t allow the bedbugs bit’
Bobbi Sternheim waves her thumbs as she arrived at court on December 7, 2007. Although her experience with the prosecution may be an advantage, she admits that there is still much to do in this trial.
Christian Everdell is 47 years old, Jeffrey Pagliuca 64 and Laura Menninger 53 are the remaining members of the defense team. They are both based in Denver, along with Haddon, Morgan and Foreman.
Everdell is a white-collar defense attorney with the Manhattan firm Cohen and Gresser. According to the company’s website he ‘has extensive experience in matters involving securities and commodities fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international money laundering, and Bank Secrecy Act violations.’
Everdell, a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, hammered at the credibility of prosecution witness Juan Alessi — Epstein’s one-time house manager — by getting him to admit that he had stolen thousands of dollars from Epstein, going back to his Palm Beach mansion to steal more.
He is a former prosecutor who helped bring down Mexican cartel kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman during more than a decade as assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
Menninger often stands with both hands on the lectern — which is encased by a plastic box with a filter so the lawyers can take off their mask to speak without fear of contaminating others in the courtroom.
Sometimes she can seem imposing, forensic, and sometimes witheringly sarcastic. She suggested that it was “another typo?” FBI to explain a contradiction between Jane’s testimony and the interview she gave in a previous interview.
Menninger went to Stanford Law School and Duke Law School. She used repeated juxtapositions to force Jane to respond, “I don’t remember” many times. Menninger claimed Jane also “came up with” one of her childhood memories that was used to attack Menninger.
Pagliuca appears closest to Maxwell — even telling her at the end of business one afternoon ‘sleep tight and don’t let the bedbugs bite.’
Maxwell always makes it a habit to greet her teammates at the beginning of each day. Maxwell shows her involvement in defense strategy and passes them index cards with points that she considers important.
During Everdell’s cross-examination of Alessi, she passed him a card and he immediately changed tack by asking if he had ever heard of someone called Carolyn, one of Maxwell’s four accusers.
‘It shows she is very much directing things,’ said the court watcher.
Maxwell could spend up to 80 years federal prison for all of the charges he faces. Epstein committed suicide during his time in federal custody, Manhattan in 2019, while awaiting the results of his child molesting trial.
THE PROSECUTION TEAM
Lara Pomerantz (37), opened for prosecution. She presented a punchy, energetic presentation in only 25 minutes, which lacked the attention to detail Sternheim gave in hers.
But just because the defense team has the history, it doesn’t mean they are necessarily ahead. ‘Some people are already hinting that this will be a botched prosecution story — but there’s still a long way to go,’ cautioned our court watcher.
The prosecution has countered that Epstein and his one-time lover were ‘partners in crime’ and she ‘served up’ young girls so the multi-millionaire could abuse them at his homes in Manhattan, New Mexico, Palm Beach and on his own Caribbean island.
‘Behind closed doors the defendant and Epstein were committing heinous crimes. They were sexually abusing teenage girls,’ Pomerantz, an alumna of Duke and Penn Law School, said.
‘She put them at ease and made them feel safe, all so that they could be sexually abused by a middle-aged man. There were times when she was in the room when it happened,’ Pomerantz added.
Lead prosecutor Lara Pomerantz points at Ghislaine Maxwell during opening statements at the start of her trial on charges of sex trafficking in New York, in a courtroom sketch
Alison Moe (left) is the Prosecutor for Trump. She was also involved in the case against his ally Steve Bannon. Her former FBI Director James Comey is the eldest child of her five siblings, Maurene Comey (right).
Pomerantz is a Public Corruption Unit in New York’s Southern District. He was based in Manhattan since 2015.
Andrew Rohrbach serves as the fourth prosecutor. So far he has examined law enforcement officers and argued legal points
This fact led to some speculation that another shoe might still fall in this particular case. ‘The fact that it is staffed out of Public Corruption tells me that a public official — past or present — is involved in at least some capacity,” legal analyst Elie Honig told Law and Crime.
Pomerantz studied at Duke and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, receiving a Fulbright Scholarship to study ‘the future of sex education in the Dominican Republic.’
Through her prosecutions of cases involving sexual crime, she has earned a reputation for prosecuting UN officials who were accused of drugging or assaulting women.
Maurene Comey (33), the daughter of James Comey is a key witness in the case.
She led Epstein’s Alessi through his testimony to devastating effect.
‘She has appeared the most confident of the prosecution team so far,’ said the court watcher, who has been in court throughout the trial. ‘Alessi’s evidence put Maxwell right at the center of Epstein’s Palm Beach operation.’
Maxwell makes a point of starting each day with a hug for all of her team. The court sketch artist shows Maxwell with Bobbi Sternheim
Maxwell’s case will be heard at the Thurgood Marshal USA Courthouse in Lower Manhattan. Previous defendants include Martha Stewart and Ivan Boesky. This courthouse inspired Michael Douglas to create the character of Gordon Gecko in Wall Street.
The other two prosecution lawyers are Alison Moe, a member of the US Attorney’s Public Corruption Unit, and Andrew Rohrbach. Both of them are 34.
Moe — who was involved in the federal prosecution of Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon before Trump pardoned him during his last days in office — has argued most of the technical legal matters, but also helped clear up after a devastating cross-examination of the soap opera actress known in court as ‘Jane’.
Dartmouth College, Columbia Law School were her two graduations.
Rohrbach attended Yale and Harvard, but has only had a small role as an examiner and lawyer.