Ghislaine Maxwell Denies Contribution to Epstein’s Sex Trafficking Scheme In Released Deposition

Ghislaine Maxwell has been in the center of the scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein’s long history of abusing teenage girls as a silent figure.

However, today, Maxwell’s voice was heard for the first time as her deposition from four-years ago was released, which contained her response to the claims surrounding Epstein.

In the deposition, Maxwell denied almost every allegation of wrongdoing in the 465-page document, denying that she helped Epstein recruit, groom, and sexually mistreat dozens of young women.

She was asked ten times in a row if she believed that Epstein had abused any children, and each time she rejected the question. She also denied having any involvement in inappropriate sex with the younger women herself. She responded, “I just testified.” She said, “I never had nonconsensual sex with anybody ever, at any time, at any place, at any time, with anybody.”

Epstein’s former romantic partner became the focus of the federal investigation of his sex-trafficking network after he committed suicide in jail last year. Prosecutors in Manhattan had charged her with conspiring with Epstein in the abuse of minors. Maxwell is one of Epstein’s closest associates, she is believed to have information about him and others who may have been involved. Many questions have been left unanswered about who those people might be, most of the names contained within the deposition were redacted, except for her’s and Epstein.

Maxwell fought for months to keep her two depositions from a case in 2015 that was brought on by one of her and Epstein’s accusers secret. She argued that the depositions contained sensitive personal information. But on Monday, a federal appeals court in Manhattan ruled that one of them could be made public.

On July 2, Maxwell pleaded not guilty for her arrest on charges from 1994 to 1997, she has contributed to the abuse of dozens of teenage girls by Epstein, some as young as 14, and in other cases, she participated in the abuse. She was also charged with lying under oath in both depositions from 2016.

The Maxwell depositions were part of the 2015 defamation lawsuit filed in Manhattan against her by Virginia Giuffre, who had earlier accused Ms. Maxwell of recruiting her as a teenager to become a victim in Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme.