The lawyers of Ghislaine Maxwell are claiming that she is being framed for the crimes of her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.
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In their opening statement for Maxwell’s child-sex trafficking case on Monday, defense attorneys argued that she was framed for Epstein’s crimes after the US Justice Department reportedly let him die in jail. Additionally, her attorneys argued that prosecutors waited too long to bring the charges against Epstein for the events that took place between 1994 and 2004.
Prosecutors accused Maxwell of trafficking girls, as young as 14, for Epstein and sexually abused them herself, calling it “a pyramid scheme of abuse,” as reported by Insider. “For a decade, the defendant played an essential role in this scheme. She knew exactly what she was doing. She was dangerous. She was setting them up with a predator,” said Assistant US Attorney Lara Elizabeth Pomerantz.
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Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all criminal charges and if convicted, she faces a sentence of 80 years in prison. Before his death, Epstein was facing similar charges after he was arrested from his home on July 9, 2019.
She was arrested in July 2020 and her lawyers also argued that their client has faced unfair treatment at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Additionally, they state she wasn’t given enough time to review the evidence for her case prior to the six-week trial.