Years-old Ghislaine Maxwell depositions revealing details about her relationship with convicted paedophile and suspected abuser Jeffrey Epstein have been revealed, following an order to this end by a New York judge.
In one of the now unsealed files on the docket, Virginia Giuffre's counsel alleges she dodged a question "about allegedly 'adult' sexual activity related to Jeffrey Epstein”. Maxwell was asked questions about the nature of her relationship with Epstein.
"I have never seen anybody have sexual intercourse with Jeffrey, ever”, the deposition transcript goes, further adding: "I never saw any inappropriate underage activities with Jeffrey ever”.
As for Giuffre, she said: "I never ever at any single time at any point ever at all participated in anything with Virginia and Jeffrey. And for the record, she is an absolute total liar”.
US District Judge Loretta Preska Tuesday ruled the conversations between lawyers for alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre and the now arrested British socialite be released after a federal appeals court found arguments by Maxwell's lawyers to keep them sealed as sensitive personal information to be meritless.
Her lawyers had appealed a judge's ruling, made in July, to allow the release of the transcripts of two depositions in which she testified before the lawsuit brought against her by Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre was settled.
The judge has since concluded there is a presumption of common access to deposition files, which should be made public. However, lawyers for Maxwell had argued the deposition had to remain confidential and that releasing it would violate her constitutional right against self-incrimination and jeopardise her rights for fair trial.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's one-time lover and close pal, is awaiting trial next year on sex trafficking charges after prosecutors indicted her for soliciting underage victims for the deceased financier. Since her arrest in early July in new Hampshire, the socialite has been kept in a Brooklyn prison cell, with her legal team complaining about her "onerous" imprisonment conditions.
Six federal charges have to date been brought against her, including perjury in earlier testimonies, direct involvement in child sex abuse, and the procurement of underage girls for her billionaire pal Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in his prison cell last year. If found guilty, Maxwell, who denies any wrongdoing and says she had distanced herself from the convicted paedophile more than a dozen years ago, will face 35 years behind bars.
