Ghislaine Maxwell Trial

[Fastbackss]

I have been forced to spend more time on Facebook due to my other hobby, as that is the only place I can get timely information.

Now that it's the off-season I periodically check in.

I have been dumbfounded at the echo chamber they've created - replete with recycled memes and warmed takes on the same subjects - most littered with covert racism and appalling stances to take on items in the press. I often can take a circuitous route to at least understand how they make the tortured walk to their awful opinions. But the "takes" this week on the Maxwell trial leave me with mouth agape. I might shut it completely off unless I am looking for specific information or the season starts.

[ti-amie]

I really can't get over the defense attorney's opening statement.

I'm going to wait until the end of the day tomorrow and hope someone has done a thread reader summary.

[mmmm8]

I really can't get over the defense attorney's opening statement.

I'm going to wait until the end of the day tomorrow and hope someone has done a thread reader summary.

You can turn to any episode of Law and Order: SVU featuring a trial of a serial sexual abuser of underage girls. Straight out of an "exaggerated" script.

[Fastbackss]

What a reference - because when I read the string of tweets here I thought "hmm...if I close my eyes I feel like I am in a SVU episode"

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

[ti-amie]

AdamKlasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) is back doing summaries of the live trial. He leaves his opinions out and just reports the facts unlike some others. *cough* Lisa Bloom *cough*

[ti-amie]

Adam Klasfeld (via @threadreaderapp)

Good afternoon from New York.

The government just called the witness known by the pseudonym "Jane." Her story loomed large during the prosecution's opening statement.

Epstein's pilot remembered her as the girl with the "piercing powder blue eyes."

Judge Nathan just instructed the courtroom sketch artists not to depict her.
Reminder:

The U.S. Attorney's office has requested that reporters observe journalism ethics norms not to ID people who say they're survivors of sexual assault.

"Jane" just said that she was sexually assaulted by Epstein "more than once" when she was 14 years old.
Asked who was most frequently in the room when she says Jeffrey Epstein sexually assaulted her, she replies: "Ghislaine Maxwell."
A photograph of her at the age of 13 is submitted under seal.
She testifies about her father's death from leukemia, her family's economic difficulties and then pivots to her studies at Interlochen, a renowned arts academy in Michigan.

(Epstein's pilot talked about this camp in the morning session. Prosecutors alluded to it in openings.)
"Jane" is describing meeting Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein for the first time.
"Jane," describing her thoughts the first time she metEpstein and Maxwell:

"They seemed very friendly. I thought they were a married couple. They seemed very inquisitive."
Asked how she would go to Epstein's house, "Jane" says: "Jeffrey would send his chauffeur for me."

Q: Did you have a driver's license at the time?
A: No.

[ti-amie]

more via @threadreaderapp

She recalls Maxwell telling her:

"Once you've (expletive) them, you can always f*** them again because they've been grandfathered in."

"Jane" recalls laughing because she didn't know what the word "grandfathered" meant.

"Jane" gives some examples of famous people they boasted about being associated with: "Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Mike Wallace."

She says she was 14 years old when she first had sexual contact with Jeffrey Epstein.

Q: Can you describe to the jury what happened when he took you inside the pool house?

She says he pulled his sweatpants down, pulled her on top of him, "proceeded to masturbate on me" and then left.

"I was frozen with fear," she says. "I had never seen a penis before."
Another instance, she says that Epstein and Maxwell started to fondle each other and casually giggling about it in front of her.

"Jane" says she was 14 at the time.
Asked how Epstein liked to be massaged, "Jane" says that he liked to be massaged "hard" — "twisting his nipples hard, rubbing his feet hard," she says.
"Jane": "It's all these mixed emotions when you're 14. You don't know what is going on."

"He would touch my breasts. He would touch my vagina."

Q: Did you touch Epstein's body?
A: Yes.

Q: Where did you touch his body?
A: Everywhere.
The prosecutor, apologizing for having to ask the q-, asks about Epstein and sex toys.

"Jane": "He liked to use vibrators, which were of different sizes. He liked to use the back massagers, which were really painful."

"He would put it on my vagina, even if I said that it hurt."

More:

"Jane" says that other people were sometimes present during her abuse.

"She would start taking her clothes off, and Jeffrey would get on the massage table." And it would turn into this "orgy."
"Jane" testifies that she was also abused in New York.

"If it wasn't an orgy in the massage room, it was in Jeffrey's bedroom," where she says she would typically be alone with him, "Jane" says.

This abuse also happened when she was 14, 15 and 16, she adds.
She gets audibly emotional saying: "I felt my heart sinking into my stomach."

Asked why, she voice cracks as she replies: "Because I didn't want to see him."

Brief, 10-minute recess.

[ti-amie]

From another legal account that his live tweeting the trial:

[ponchi101]

Ok. This sounds very sordid. But, and excuse me for being the devil's advocate here: where were this woman's parents, when she was 14? You are telling me that she was allowed to travel around the USA with a grownup man in his jet plane, and they never said anything?
Seems like there are a lot of guilty parts here, from what has been posted.

[ti-amie]

Testimony has resumed after the ten minute break.

First is from @KlasfeldReports via @threadreaderapp

She said her mother was "enamored" of this idea that "these wealthy, affluent people took an interest in me."

"They must think I'm special, and I should be grateful about the attention that I'm receiving."
She says she didn't tell her mother about any sexual abuse because she felt ashamed, thought it was her fault, and was in a household when you didn't speak unless spoken to.

"I was afraid that I would be in trouble if I said something," she says.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe asks her if she considered self-harm.

She replies yes, her voice cracking as she describes things seeming "hopeless."

She spoke to a school guidance counselor about her sadness, she said.
She said her mother slapped her and told her she shouldn't tell anyone about her feelings and what's going on at home.

From @InnerCityPress

Inner City Press
@innercitypress
·
8m
Replying to
@innercitypress
...Judge Nathan: Jurors, you will hear what the witness' mother said. That is not offered for the truth of the matter asserted, but for the impact on the witness. You may proceed.

AUSA: What did your mother say?
Jane: That I should be grateful for their attention.
AUSA: Did you tell your siblings about the abuse?
Jane: No. I was ashamed. And I had a manic-depressed mother who didn't know how to cope. [sobs] It seemed hopeless.

[ti-amie]

From @KlasfeldReports

"Jane" about Maxwell and Epstein's attention: "Initially, I felt special. I didn't have much support or attention at home."
Asked about the long-term impacts of her experiences with Epstein and Maxwell, "Jane" asks: "How do you navigate a healthy relationship with a broken compass?"

"I didn't know what real love was supposed to look like."

"It ruined my self-esteem, my self-worth," she adds later.

[ti-amie]

Inner City Press:

Inner City Press
@innercitypress

AUSA: Jane, what kind of work do you do now?
Jane: I am still an actor. I got work in LA. But I didn't know how to trust, how to reciprocate.
AUSA: When did you stop being in touch with Jeffrey Epstein?
Jane: In 2002. I fell in love with someone.
Inner City Press
@innercitypress

Jane: Epstein kept calling me and saying he wanted to see me, that I needed to be grateful to him, that my mother was living in one of his apartment. Do you want me to continue?
AUSA: Was that the last time?
Jane: Yes.
Inner City Press
@innercitypress

AUSA: Later did you tell the man I'll call Matt about Epstein?
Jane: Yes. Not in detail. But I did. By then you saw Epstein on the TV all the time. He had been arrested.
AUSA: Did the FBI interview you in September 2019?
Jane: Yes.

Jane: May 2019.
AUSA: Did you sue Ghislaine Maxwell?
Jane: Yes. In 2020.
AUSA: And the Epstein Victims' Fund?
Jane: Yes. They awarded me $5 million. Of that, I got approximately $2.9 million.
AUSA: Would the verdict in this case impact that?
Objection!
Sidebar.

They're back.
AUSA: Would a verdict here impact that?
Jane: No.
Judge Nathan: This is not a legal opinion.
AUSA: Why do you want to be anonymous?
Jane: Because I work in Hollywood and victim shaming is still the norm.
AUSA: No further questions.

[ti-amie]

Cross is starting. There is a hard stop at 5p EST.

Adam Klasfeld
@KlasfeldReports

Cross-examination begins

The first question, summarized, is: You waited 20 years to report to law enforcement?

More details of the cross:

Inner City Press
@innercitypress

Judge Nathan: Ms. Menninger you may cross examine.
Maxwell's lawyer Menninger: You waited 20 years to complain, correct?
Jane: Correct.
Menninger: Two full decades before your first report to the police. By then Mr. Epstein was dead, correct?
Jane: Correct.

Menninger: And you had two personal injury attorneys with you. Mr. Glaxman and Mr. Workman. And AUSA Moe.
Jane: Yes.
Menniger: In the 20 years, you spoke to several people close to you. To the person we're referring to as Matt. Your sister Camilla-
Objection!