A lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell used a lengthy chunk of her closing argument to challenge the testimony of the four women who took the stand as accusers in Ms. Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial, mirroring the confrontational strategy the defense used during cross-examination.
Laura Menninger, one of Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers, homed in on what she said were logical and factual inconsistencies and “lapses in memory” that she said were pervasive.
The question of how to handle a witness describing sexual abuse is fraught for defense lawyers, who often must strike a balance between confrontational questioning and appearing to badger or bully a victim.
But lawyers for Ms. Maxwell made it clear early on in the trial that they would aggressively question the four women whose testimony provided the main basis for the government’s case.
Three of those witnesses testified under pseudonyms or partial names. They were identified in court at Jane, Kate and Carolyn. The fourth, Annie Farmer testified under her full name.
Here are some of the ways in which the defense sought to counter their testimony and how the witnesses responded.
Jane
Jane testified that she met Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein when she was 14 and that Ms. Maxwell instructed her in how to touch Mr. Epstein during massages that he used as opportunities to sexually abuse her.
Defense lawyers questioned Jane on inconsistencies in some of her statements over the years, which included an inaccurate recollection of what year she had flown to New York with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell to see “The Lion King.”
During her closing argument, Ms. Menninger noted that Jane repeatedly said she did not know or remember details of her abuse, including whether she had ever been alone in a room with Ms. Maxwell and Ms. Epstein.
Kate
While questioning Kate, a former model who had said she met Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell in London when she was 17, the defense did not substantively address her accounts of abuse, which included massages in which Mr. Epstein initiated sexual touching, instead of questioning her credibility.
A defense lawyer asked Kate whether she had gotten someone to plant drugs on her ex-husband and whether she had taken payment from a tabloid to record someone connected to the British royal family talking about drugs at the Cannes Film Festival. She denied both allegations.
Carolyn
The witness named Carolyn testified that began giving Mr. Epstein sexualized messages, sometimes arranged by Ms. Maxwell when she was 14. She acknowledged inconsistencies between her testimony and her previous statements. She also made contradictory statements on the stand.
The cross-examination was harsh. One juror could be seen shaking her head when a defense lawyer pressed on as Carolyn collected herself after a bout of sobbing and suggested that she had quickly spent $446,000 that she had been paid for claims against Mr. Epstein and one of his associates.
Annie Farmer
After Annie Farmer testified that Mr. Epstein “caressed” her hand during a movie when she was 16 and later jumped into a bed with her and pressed his body against hers, the defense suggested those incidents were innocuous.
“Hand-holding was sexual abuse?” a defense lawyer asked Ms. Farmer.
A few minutes later the lawyer inquired three times whether Ms. Farmer had felt an “erect penis” while Mr. Epstein was pressing against her, suggesting that because she had not testified to that fact, the encounter had not been abusive.
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