Jeffrey Epstein victims: Why are they dropping their Ghislaine Maxwell cases?
Via Film Daily, Associated Press
👉 The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell
Ghislaine Maxwell & Jeffrey Epstein were accused of the deviant crimes of sex trafficking and conspiracy. Maxwell is also charged with enticement of minors, sex trafficking of children, and perjury. Yet, two Jeffrey Epstein victims have separately dropped their cases against the dead pedophile’s estate and his alleged madam.
Suits rescinded
According to court papers, Jennifer Araoz sued Ghislaine Maxwell in September for allegedly helping recruit her as a sex slave at the age of fourteen. But Araoz dropped the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit on November 2, a brief court filing indicates.
Similarly, court papers from October 30 show a woman who anonymously sued Jeffrey Epstein’s estate in December, alongside eight other accusers, has also dropped her claims. The victim – who filed under the name Jane Doe VII – claimed in the lawsuit that she was sexually abused by Epstein in 2007 when she was twenty-two years old.
The fact that the two women have dropped their claims may indicate that they were awarded money under a victims compensation fund set up for Epstein’s accusers.
Regulated restitution
The voluntary compensation program for alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse was first proposed by the executors of the late financier’s $634 million estate in November 2019. The plan had been on hold since the government of the U.S. Virgin Islands filed a civil racketeering lawsuit against the estate, along with criminal activity liens that froze Epstein’s worldwide assets.
In an unusual arrangement, even victims who had already received settlements from Epstein will be able to participate, though any potential award would be reduced by the amount of the previous payment. According to court filings in St. Thomas, where Epstein’s estate is being administered, approximately seventy alleged victims have shown interest in participating in the claims process.
Deposition displayed
As Epstein’s former romantic partner, Ghislaine Maxwell became the focus of a federal investigation into his sex-trafficking network after his suicide in jail last year at age sixty-six. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged her with conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein, a financier, in his abuse of minors. As his closest associate, Maxwell is believed to have a great deal of information about him and others who may have been involved.
Maxwell’s recently revealed deposition is filled with denials about various forms of sexual activity,
The deposition also gave a look into how Jeffrey Epstein financially supported Ghislaine over the years. She said Jeffrey lent her money to buy a townhouse and bought a car for her – though she couldn’t recall the make or model. Maxwell also said Epstein donated $50,000 to TerraMar, an ocean conservation charity she founded.
Giuffre has accused Ghislaine Maxwell, in a defamation lawsuit, of recruiting her as a teenager to become a victim in Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme. She claims that at age seventeen she met Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Florida, where Jeffrey Epstein also kept a home. Trump’s name does not appear in Maxwell’s deposition, and Giuffre has not accused Trump of any wrongdoing. . . . Full Article By Patrice A. Kelly @ Film Daily
Evidence deadline looms in case of Epstein’s ex-girlfriend
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors and defense lawyers are clashing days before a deadline for evidence to be turned over in the prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein’s one-time girlfriend on charges that she recruited girls for him to sexually abuse.
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is not scheduled to start until July, but prosecutors must turn over evidence to her lawyers by Monday.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging that she recruited three girls in the mid-1990s for Epstein to abuse. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal lockup in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
On Oct. 30, prosecutors said in a letter to a Manhattan federal court judge that they will in the next week give Maxwell’s lawyers over 1.2 million documents from devices seized from Epstein’s residences.
They say they’ve already turned over more than 350,000 pages of documents, including search warrants, subpoena returns and some records related to law enforcement investigations of Epstein... . . Full Article By LARRY NEUMEISTER @ Associated Press
By now, the basic contours of Jeffrey Epstein’s horrendous crimes—his decades-long serial abuse of young women and underage girls—are familiar. But for all that has been written about Epstein since his shocking death in a lower Manhattan jail cell, an astonishing amount remains unknown. A shy Brooklyn kid turned renegade financier, Jeffrey Epstein never wanted to play by the rules of polite society. He was elusive in life and he has remained just as elusive in death.
What is known is that he had amassed nearly $600 million by the time of his death. That fortune allowed Epstein to pursue a privileged, secretive life, jetting between his fortress-like homes in Manhattan, New Mexico, and Little St. James, his private island. Behind these closed doors, Epstein socialized with scientists and world leaders and preyed on powerless young women.