Lachlan Cartwright: No doubt they hooked up at some point, but for Epstein, Maxwell played a more valuable role than just a love interest. They thought she did it to make them jealous. Vanessa Grigoriadis: I don’t know if they were sleeping together or not, but she would tell Epstein’s above-age girlfriends that they were. Were Epstein and Maxwell actually romantic partners, and if so, for how long? What role did she play in his life? Gabriel Sherman: special correspondent for Vanity Fair who has written on Epstein’s finances ![]() Jose Lambiet: South Florida private investigator who formerly worked as a gossip columnist for the Palm Beach Post and other news organizations Vanessa Grigoriadis: co-creator of the podcast Fallen Angel, about Victoria’s Secret, the chain’s founder Leslie Wexner, and his relationship with Epstein Lachlan Cartwright: editor-at-large at The Daily Beast who has covered the Epstein case Nick Bryant: reporter who first obtained and published Epstein’s “little black book” Julie Brown: Miami Herald reporter and the author of Perversion of Justice Our expert panel is here to chew over, debate, and maybe even answer the Big Questions. While we wait for that verdict, though, New York has decided to convene its own jury of sorts, made up of half-dozen people who know Epstein’s life inside and out. After that, 12 supposedly impartial jurors will determine whether she is guilty of sex-trafficking crimes. Thursday, Maxwell’s aggressive attorneys will begin to present her defense, which may provide some further explanation. Yet other witnesses have described her playing a role more akin to a household manager. Witnesses testified that they shared a bedroom in Palm Beach. It said they were lovers for “11 years,” beginning around the time of her father Robert Maxwell’s death in 1991. ![]() At one point, as evidence of a long-term affair, prosecutors presented a bizarre Microsoft Word document from an Epstein computer, written in the third person by user “GMax,” that read like a college recommendation for the couple. Maxwell’s trial has done little, either, to clear up the bewildering nature of her relationship with Epstein. If anyone was expecting to hear what Epstein and his pals were really up to, though, they were disappointed. Epstein’s personal pilot testified of flying the financier around the world with former and future presidents (Bill Clinton, Donald Trump), a royal family member (Prince Andrew, the Duke of York), celebrities (Kevin Spacey), and a continually replenished roster of beautiful young women. There were interior and aerial shots of his personal properties: the 21,000-square-foot mansion on East 71st Street the 8,000-acre Zorro Ranch in New Mexico the private Caribbean island of Little Saint James, which features steep cliffs fit for a Bond villain and a “piano pavilion” that resembles an occult temple. ![]() There were candid snapshots - part of the “vast trove” of photos seized at the time of Epstein’s arrest - of him cavorting with Maxwell on his private jet. The prosecution made no attempt to explain the origin of Epstein’s wealth, although it did present tantalizing evidence of the lascivious existence he was able to purchase with it. But it will do little to dispel the stench of speculation and conspiracy surrounding Epstein and his highly connected friends. That evidence may still weigh heavily enough to convict Maxwell, who is accused of identifying and grooming Epstein’s victims, as well as sometimes joining in his sexual activities. The case against Maxwell will rest almost entirely on the testimony of four women who described being sexually abused by Epstein when they were teenagers. “It’s surprising,” says Julie Brown, the Miami Herald reporter whose 2018 investigative series is widely credited with reviving the criminal case against Epstein. Instead, federal prosecutors called just a handful of witnesses, and rested their case far earlier than they had predicted before the trial. Her trial, in which she stands accused of federal sex-trafficking offenses, was supposed to provide some measure of resolution to the many mysteries surrounding the life and death of Epstein, the superwealthy globetrotting sexual predator who hanged himself (maybe) in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. Last Friday, the prosecution rested its case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the British heiress and former companion of Jeffrey Epstein.
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