ENSPIRING.ai: Jeffrey Epsteins ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell arrested and charged by FBI - BBC Newsnight
The video discusses the legal proceedings following the apparent suicide of Jeffrey Epstein and the subsequent arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, a long-term associate of Epstein. Maxwell is facing charges related to the illegal enticement and transportation of minors for sexual acts and perjury. The video highlights her role in introducing Epstein to influential people and allegedly participating in the grooming and abuse of young victims. The charges against her increase pressure on other individuals associated with Epstein, like Prince Andrew.
The importance of the video lies in its focus on the legal challenges and potential loopholes surrounding Maxwell's case, such as the statute of limitations and a previous plea bargain granting immunity to some of Epstein's associates. Interviews are conducted with Alan Dershowitz, a lawyer with connections to Epstein, and Lisa Bloom, a lawyer representing some of Epstein's victims. The conflicting information regarding the cooperation of Prince Andrew and the ongoing investigations are also discussed.
Main takeaways from the video:
Please remember to turn on the CC button to view the subtitles.
Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:
1. grooming [gruːmɪŋ] - (n.) - The process of establishing an emotional connection with a child or young person to lower their inhibitions for future abuse. - Synonyms: (preparation, manipulation, coaxing)
After developing a rapport with the victims, Maxwell then tried to normalize sexual abuse with a minor victim through a process known as grooming.
2. indictment [ɪnˈdaɪtmənt] - (n.) - A formal accusation that someone has committed a crime. - Synonyms: (charge, accusation, arraignment)
The indictment from the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York contains six charges against Maxwell.
3. entice [ɪnˈtaɪs] - (v.) - To attract or tempt someone by offering pleasure or advantage. - Synonyms: (lure, allure, tempt)
Two are to do with enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
4. perjury [ˈpɜːrdʒəri] - (n.) - The crime of telling a lie in a court of law after having taken an oath or affirmation. - Synonyms: (false testimony, lying under oath, deceit)
And there are two charges to do with perjury.
5. inappropriate [ɪˌnæprəˈprɪət] - (adj.) - Not suitable or proper in the circumstances. - Synonyms: (unseemly, improper, unsuitable)
We never saw any inappropriate behavior.
6. presumption [prɪˈzʌmpʃən] - (n.) - An assumption that something is true, often based on probable evidence. - Synonyms: (assumption, supposition, belief)
The presumption of innocence must apply until we see the actual evidence rather than mere allegations.
7. allegation [ˌæləˈɡeɪʃən] - (n.) - A claim or assertion that someone has done something illegal or wrong, typically one made without proof. - Synonyms: (accusation, claim, assertion)
What I don't believe are any allegations made by Virginia Goufre.
8. immunity [ɪˈmjuːnəti] - (n.) - Protection or exemption from something, especially an obligation or penalty. - Synonyms: (exemption, protection, indemnity)
Was Ghislaine Maxwell named as part of that legal immunity deal?
9. indemnify [ɪnˈdɛmnɪfaɪ] - (v.) - To compensate for harm or loss or to secure against legal responsibility. - Synonyms: (reimburse, compensate, cover)
They may seek to have my clients dismiss claims against Ghislaine Maxwell because perhaps the estate has to indemnify her.
10. explosive [ɪkˈsploʊsɪv] - (adj.) - Likely to cause an explosion or a sudden outburst of noise or emotion. - Synonyms: (volatile, incendiary, unpredictable)
I think very explosive.
Jeffrey Epsteins ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell arrested and charged by FBI - BBC Newsnight
With Jeffrey Epstein's apparent suicide ten months ago, so many questions remained unanswered. Not least, would anyone ever pay for his crimes? One name keeps coming up, Epstein's long term friend and associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. She had the contacts to introduce him to powerful men like Prince Andrew and the willingness, according to today's charges, to find and groom a procession of young victims.
Ghislaine Maxwell finally stands charged for her role in these crimes. In New York this afternoon, federal prosecutors outlined the charges against Maxwell, who was arrested earlier today by the FBI at a property in New Hampshire. Maxwell played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend, and groom minor victims for abuse. In some cases, Maxwell participated in the abuse herself.
The indictment from the United States District Court in the Southern District of New York contains six charges against Maxwell. Two are to do with enticing minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts. Another two are concerned with transporting minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. And there are two charges to do with perjury. Typically, they would befriend these young girls by asking them questions about their lives, pretending to be taking an interest in them. They would take them to the movies and treat them to shopping trips.
Maxwell would encourage these young girls to accept offers from Epstein to pay for their travel and their education, making these young victims feel indebted to Jeffrey Epstein. After developing a rapport with the victims, Maxwell then tried to normalize sexual abuse with a minor victim through a process known as grooming. This will add to the pressure on Prince Andrew to explain fully his involvement with Epstein.
Maxwell was the link, the one who brought the two men together. She can be seen in the background of this now famous photograph of Prince Andrew and Virginia Gouffre, who alleges that Maxwell pressured her to have sex with Prince Andrew in London in 2001 when she was 17. Prince Andrew denied this allegation and any wrongdoing when he was interviewed by Newsnight last year.
Would you be willing to testify or give a statement under oath if you were asked? Well, I'm like everybody else, and I would have to take all the legal advice that there was before I was to do that sort of thing. But if Bush came to shove and the legal advice was to do so, then I would be duty bound to do so.
Prosecutors in New York investigating Epstein and his associates have long sought a meeting with Prince Andrew. They say the prince has completely shut the door on helping them and has offered zero cooperation. The prince's lawyers dispute this and say he has offered to help the US Department of Justice three times this year.
However, today the us authorities reiterated their request for help. I'm not going to comment on anyone's status in this investigation, but I will say that we would welcome Prince Andrew coming in to talk with us. We would like to have the benefit of his statement. It seems now that Jeffrey Epstein's crimes will come to court with the case of someone who stands accused of helping him abuse so many vulnerable women and girls.
Ghislaine Maxwell will be the first to stand trial in this affair. She may not be the last. David Grossman. Well, we'll hear in a moment from lawyer Lisa Bloom. She represents six clients who accused Epstein of sexual misconduct. One also accuses Maxwell. None of her clients is amongst the alleged victims detailed in today's charges.
But first I'm joined by Alan Dershowitz, the lawyer who represented Jeffrey Epstein and brokered a plea bargain for him and who has himself been embroiled in accusations by one of Epstein's alleged victims, Virginia Jeffrey, which he has denied.
Alan Dershowitz, thank you very much for joining us tonight. You met Ghislaine Maxwell dozens of times. Did you witness any of the sort of depraved behavior such as what is being alleged? No, of course not. I was introduced to her by the Lord Evelyn and the Lady Rothschild. I met her several times, not dozens, several times in the presence of very prominent people.
Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, Nobel Prize winning scientists, the presidents of major universities. I never ever saw her engaging in any kind of inappropriate behavior. My wife and I met her, my daughter met her. We never saw any inappropriate behavior. In fact, I went and volunteered to the us attorney's office. I went in on my own and to the DA's office more than a couple of years ago and said, I want to tell you everything I know about everybody involved in this. And I did and I will continue to do so.
But I, I saw nothing inappropriate on her behalf at all. And do you believe that Ghislaine Maxwell is capable of what's being alleged? Well, let's see the evidence. What I don't believe are any allegations made by Virginia Goufre, who has admitted on tape, admitted her lawyer has admitted, she has emails acknowledging never met me.
Yes, she's not making allegations in this. This relates to a different case. Alan Dershowitz, I think we should perhaps stick to this one just now. This may be the beginning. This may be one indictment. It may be followed by subsequent indictments because this indictment ends in 1997.
And I think the government will have some problems with statute limitations and also with the plea bargain that gives her immunity if they accuse her of any actions that took place after the plea bargain, that would give them a strong. Okay. So I suspect that we will be hearing from some of these witnesses who lack credibility and who have long history of lying.
Let's talk about each of those things in turn. Let's talk first about the statute of limitations. Does that apply to minors in every state in America? Well, this is a federal charge, not a state charge. Sorry. Yes, it no longer applies. But the question is, did it apply at some point in time? Was it extended while the statute still applied to her? It's a very technical, complex legal issue, and it will be litigated in a very, very aggressive way by her. Very.
Yeah, I was going to say, what do you think her legal strategy would be? But before I ask that, let's go back to this plea bargain, and what actually happened was that your team sought legal immunity for Jeffrey Epstein up to 2008 and also for others of his close associates. Was Ghislaine Maxwell named as part of that legal immunity deal?
Yes, she was. There were four people whose names were explicitly mentioned, and the government is going to have to argue that that applies only in the southern district of Florida and not in the southern District of New York. This is not an open and shut case. There will be factual disputes and there will be legal disputes.
The presumption of innocence must apply until we see the actual evidence rather than mere allegations. So what do you think her legal strategy might be then? Well, first of all, to raise questions about the facts, but mostly, I think she has two strong legal arguments, the statute of limitations and the immunity agreement. Those are both legal issues that won't be presented to a jury.
The factual issues will be presented to a jury. And, you know, she'll call witnesses. They'll call witnesses. There'll be cross examination. It looks very different than it looked on Netflix, for example, when only the alleged victims were allowed to speak and all the evidence showing lack of credibility.
Let me put one very quick final question to you, Alan Dershowitz. I must go to Lisa Woon. Very quick final question. Do you think she'll get bail? I think the government will very aggressively try to oppose bail because she will be seen as a flight risk. I think she should get bail. She should be confined to home confinement with an electronic bracelet. She is, after all, presumed innocent.
And people who are presumed innocent should not be locked up unless there's compelling evidence that they're dangerous or that there is a flight risk. Thank you very much indeed. Let me turn to Lisa Bloom. Thank you very much for joining us.
First of all, how do you think today's events will impact on the course of your own clients cases? I think it's a very positive development. It's a monumental development that finally, after decades of victims accusing Ghislaine Maxwell, she is at last arrested. Now, I represent six Jeffrey Epstein victims in the civil case against his estate.
And I think this is going to help a great deal because they may seek to have my clients dismiss claims against Ghislaine Maxwell because perhaps the estate has to indemnify her. In other words, pay out claims against her. The fact that she's now arrested, this is serious enough for law enforcement to come after her on the criminal side definitely helps the victims.
So two things from Alan Dershowitz's interview. First, on the statute of limitations, and secondly, on this question of legal immunity, which he and his team negotiated on Jeffrey Epstein and close associates, and she was named as one of those associates. So let's talk about the statute of limitations.
Two of the charges are perjury charges, and those are recent from statements that she made in 2016 under oath, which are alleged to be false. There's not going to be any statute of limitations problem there. As to the other four allegations that she aided and abetted Jeffrey Epstein, we're talking about underage girls in the 1990s, and there is an extended statute of limitations to criminally charge somebody in relation to child sexual abuse charges.
And that's because the law recognizes that most child sexual abuse victims are not going to come forward the next day or even the next year or even five years later. It takes a very long time. So I think the prosecutors have looked at that. I think that Ghislaine Maxwell's attorneys will surely argue it, but ultimately, I don't think it's going to be successful for them. Okay, on the immunity.
So on the immunity, you know, I haven't taken a look at that recently. I know that Alan Dershowitz seems to be very proud to have negotiated that for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, that in 2008, Epstein just got a slap on the wrist and got away with it. And, I mean, it's horrendous. What I understand is it only applies in the southern district of Florida. So Florida prosecutors can't come after me. But this is New York. So you said earlier today that there are certainly hundreds of photos and you understand that there are tapes as well.
How explosive could this be? I think very explosive. There's no question that Jeffrey Epstein did not act alone, that Ghislaine Maxwell was very close to him for a period of decades, that many, many of the girls say that Ghislaine is the one who gained their trust because she was a woman, because she could be nice to them at times. She would then get sexually provocative, encourage them to do it, and the next thing they know, they're being sexually abused by Epstein and some say by Maxwell as well. Allegations innocent or proven guilty, of course.
Now, Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney in the southern district, said today that she hoped that Prince Andrew would come and she'd be, he'd be very welcome to come and talk to her. Two things about that. First of all, he said he's offered, offered to help on three occasions. And, you know, what do you think Audrey Strauss would want to hear from him? A lot. I would think it would be days and days of questions to him, questions about his own alleged misconduct, but also, which he has denied, of course, completely, which he denies, but also questions about Ghislaine, who he said was a good friend of his, for example.
Investigators always need to connect the dots. Victims may say that Ghislaine was with them at a place in time. She denies it. Perhaps Prince Andrew has knowledge about that. Perhaps she made statements about these alleged victims to Prince Andrew which are incriminating or at least indicating that she knew them. So there's a great deal of information that he could provide which could be helpful.
Thank you very much indeed for joining us. Lisa Bloom, thank you.
Crime, Justice, Legal Proceedings, Global, Politics, Technology, Bbc Newsnight
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