No verdict yet against Epstein friend Ghislaine Maxwell

The jury in New York has been discussing the charges against Ghislaine Maxwell (59), the friend of the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, since Monday. Your hesitation does not bode well for the prosecution.

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The wait goes on. On Wednesday, the twelve jurors, who had been brooding over the six charges against Ghislaine Maxwell in a federal court in New York since late Monday evening, said goodbye to the long Christmas weekend. With a “No, thank you” the jury also declined Judge Alison Nathan’s offer for an additional day of trial. They will resume their deliberations on next Monday at the earliest.

Maxwell, the long-time friend of the late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, will definitely have to celebrate her 60th birthday behind bars on Christmas Day. She is currently in a detention center in Brooklyn, New York. She is suspected of having served her companion as a pimp for minors. If convicted, she faces a prison sentence of up to 70 years.

“Maybe that was the biggest mistake of her life”

Is the jury’s hesitation after Maxwell’s attorneys’ closing arguments a good omen for the defendant? Possibly. Because it is clear: According to the rules of the game before the Federal Supreme Court, judgments must be passed unanimously – regardless of whether it is acquittal (“not guilty”) or guilty verdict (“guilty”), in each individual charge. Because the deliberations of the jury members are secret, even for Judge Nathan, nobody knows what issues the jury is discussing behind closed doors. One deviator among the 12 jurors is enough – and the trial against Maxwell would come to an early end.

At most, conclusions can be drawn from the questions that the jury has asked the judge so far. The jury members asked for transcripts of all four Epstein victims who had testified in court. The jury also wanted access to an FBI report in which a victim had made contradicting statements about Epstein and Maxwell. Judge Nathan dismissed the latter request because she had not admitted this document as official evidence.

Maxwell’s defenders are optimistic

Meanwhile, the defense spreads optimism. Two of Maxwell’s lawyers clapped each other in the courtroom on Wednesday. Maxwell describes defense as a pawn of justice. Lawyer Laura Menninger said in the closing argument:

“Ghislaine is being tried because she was with Jeffrey Epstein. Maybe that was the biggest mistake of her life. But it’s not a crime. ”

The prosecution, however, takes the position that Epstein and Maxwell were accomplices; she had held him against young women and underage girls who then often sexually abused them together.