United States prosecutors filed two additional charges against Ghislaine Maxwell on Monday, one for sex trafficking conspiracy and one for sex trafficking of a minor.
Maxwell, a longtime friend of the late Jeffrey Epstein, is awaiting trial on charges that she recruited underage girls to engage in sexual activities with Epstein. She now faces an eight-count indictment and has already pleaded not guilty to committing abuse against three girls between 1994 and 1997. Monday’s filing adds a fourth girl to the list of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims. (RELATED: Ghislaine Maxwell Claims She’s Just A ‘Substitute’ For Epstein After His Death)
According to the indictment, the girls were paid hundreds of dollars for each encounter.
“Between approximately in or about 1994 and in or about 2004, Ghislaine Maxwell, the defendant, facilitated Jeffrey Epstein’s access to minor victims by, among other things, inducing and enticing, and aiding and abetting the inducement and enticement of, multiple minor victims. Victims were groomed and/or abused at multiple locations,” Monday’s court documents read.
Breaking News: Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was charged in federal court for the first time with sex-trafficking of a minor. https://t.co/uxOPl3kKoM
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 29, 2021
“The victims were as young as 14 years old when they were groomed and abused by Maxwell and Epstein, both of whom knew that certain victims were in fact under the age of 18,” according to the filings.
Maxwell is also charged with perjury for allegedly lying during a deposition for a lawsuit filed by an Epstein accuser. She was arrested in July 2020.
Epstein died in jail in 2019 after pleading guilty to paying an underage girl for sexual services. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging by the New York City medical examiner. He was being held without bail on child sex trafficking charges at the time of his death.
Maxwell is scheduled to stand trial on July 12.