Ghislaine Maxwell not only knew about Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of teenage girls but her participation in his sex-trafficking scheme was motivated by money and maintaining a luxurious lifestyle, a federal prosecutor said Monday.
The prosecutor, Alison Moe, gave a methodical closing argument at Ms. Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial that knitted together a complex case involving the testimony of four accusers and evidence including financial records.
Ms. Moe cited bank records introduced at the trial that showed Ms. Maxwell received $30.7 million from Mr. Epstein between 1999 and 2007, which covers part of the period in which she has been charged with helping him to recruit, groom, and sexually abuse young teenagers.
“Your common sense tells you, you don’t give someone $30 million unless they are giving you exactly what you want,” Ms. Moe told jurors, “and what Epstein wanted was to touch underage girls.”
“When Maxwell took that money,” she told the jury, “she knew what it was for — and now you do, too.”
It was an argument that prosecutors had touched on briefly during opening statements last month, but never so directly as Ms. Moe did in her crisp, two-hour summation that placed Ms. Maxwell at the heart of Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme and offered the jury a rationale for her conduct.
“Maxwell was key to the whole operation,” Ms. Moe said. “He didn’t have to hide it from Maxwell because she was in on the whole thing.”
Ms. Moe’s summation opened a full day of scheduled arguments in Federal District Court in Manhattan. She was followed by Ms. Maxwell’s attorney, Laura Menninger, and later in the day another prosecutor was expected to offer a rebuttal.
As Ms. Moe explained to the jury, Ms. Maxwell, 59, faces six counts, including two related to sex trafficking and four related to allegations she conspired in a scheme to entice and transport underage girls to Mr. Epstein for sexual abuse. She has denied the accusations.
Ms. Moe said Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein targeted girls for abuse who came from difficult backgrounds, making them more vulnerable to manipulation. One had lost her father recently; the mother of another was an alcoholic.
“Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” Ms. Moe said. “She manipulated her victims and groomed them for sexual abuse.”
While it would be disturbing for an older man to try to forge relationships with girls, Ms. Moe said, the presence of Ms. Maxwell — a “posh, smiling, age-appropriate woman” — gave him cover.
“It lures them into a trap,” Ms. Moe added.
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