A federal judge in New York on Monday said that the public had the right to see an excerpt from Ghislaine Maxwell’s July 2016 deposition that she said were illegally obtained by prosecutors and should be barred from the courtroom.
Reuters reported that the 20-line excerpt comes from the defamation suit involving Virginia Giuffre that has been settled. U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska reportedly wrote that there is no compelling reason “not to unseal this portion of testimony.” The Washington Post reported that prosecutors accuse Maxwell of lying in the deposition about how much she knew about Jeffery Epstein’s actions.
Maxwell, a British socialite, has been charged with recruiting teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse in the 1990s. Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell said the indictment against their client was obtained unjustly and doesn’t allege crimes specific enough to bring before a jury.
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Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges that she recruited three teenage girls, including a 14-year-old, for Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 1997. The indictment alleged she sometimes joined in the abuse. She has maintained her innocence.
The Reuters report said that the New York judge has already released portions of the deposition. The excerpt reportedly covers her denials and whether she knew Epstein—who killed himself in 2019– engaged in sex with other women.
Maxwell believes prosecutors obtained the deposition transcript illegally, and it should be kept out of her trial.
Her lawyers have said that argument would be compromised if prosecutors could claim that any errors they made were harmless once Preska released the testimony.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan oversees the criminal case and will decide whether to admit or suppress the deposition.
Maxwell is separately seeking to dismiss all or part of the indictment, arguing in part that prosecutors are targeting her only because Epstein is dead and she serves as a “substitute” for him.
Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell was arrested in July and is being held in a Brooklyn jail. Nathan has twice denied bail.
The report pointed out that the judge for the criminal case will make the ultimate decision on whether or not to release the deposition. Maxwell’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News.