Prosecutors Defend Newer Charges Against Ghislaine Maxwell

Prosecutors Defend Newer Charges Against Ghislaine Maxwell
Audrey Strauss, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photograph of Jeffrey Epstein and his ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, on July 2, 2020. John Minchillo/AP Photo
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NEW YORK—Prosecutors hope to preserve a July trial date for Ghislaine Maxwell by defending a late-hour expansion of charges against her, saying they developed when a woman spoke after Maxwell’s arrest about her abuse at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s.

The rewritten indictment lodged against the 59-year-old British socialite on March 29 added sex trafficking charges to allegations that Maxwell recruited three teenage girls from 1994 to 1997 for then-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. New charges stretched the conspiracy to 2004.