Ghislaine Maxwell TrialWhat Happened on the First Day of the Ghislaine Maxwell Trial

Follow our live coverage of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

4 takeaways from the first day of Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial.

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Sarah Ransome, who accused Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse in a civil lawsuit, arrives at the federal courthouse in Manhattan where Mr. Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is on trial. Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

The sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former romantic partner and employee, got underway in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday with opening statements and testimony from one of the pilots who flew Mr. Epstein’s private planes.

In the coming weeks, jurors are expected to hear testimony from four women who prosecutors said were abused as teenagers by Mr. Epstein.

Ms. Maxwell, the daughter of a British media mogul, faces six counts, stemming from what prosecutors say was her role in the sexual exploitation of the women. The charges include enticing a minor to travel to engage in criminal sexual activity and transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Here are some takeaways from the first day of the trial:

The jury will hear the story of Jane, who was 14 when she met Mr. Epstein.

In describing how evidence would show that Ms. Maxwell helped Mr. Epstein traffic and sexually abuse teenage girls, a prosecutor sketched out the story of one accuser referred to only by a first name, Jane.

Jane met Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell in 1994, the prosecutor, Lara Pomerantz, told jurors: a seemingly innocent encounter that began at a picnic table with the realization that the two adults and the teenage girl all lived in Palm Beach, Fla. It ended with Jane providing her phone number.

That was the “beginning of a nightmare that would last for years,” Ms. Pomerantz said. She said that Ms. Maxwell helped win Jane’s trust with shopping trips and “helped normalize abusive sexual conduct” at the hands of Mr. Epstein.

The jury would hear directly from Jane and from three other women who had similar experiences as teenage girls, the prosecutor said.

The defense will try to show that the four accusers’ memories are unreliable.

A few minutes later, however, a defense lawyer, Bobbi C. Sternheim, told jurors that recollections from witnesses like Jane, who are expected to testify under oath about Mr. Epstein’s abuse, were not to be trusted.

She suggested the accusers had “unreliable and suspect” memories that could have been “corrupted” over the years or “contaminated” by “constant media reports.” She also suggested the accusers were motivated by a desire to win “a big jackpot of money” from a possible civil action against Mr. Epstein’s estate.

“Each accuser’s story is thin,” she told jurors. “They have been impacted by lawyers, by media, by things they have read and things they have heard and by money, big bucks.”

Another defense strategy will be to shift blame to Mr. Epstein.

Ms. Sternheim painted Ms. Maxwell as a “scapegoat” who is on trial only because Mr. Epstein had killed himself in a federal jail. That suicide, she told jurors, left “a gaping hole in the pursuit of justice” for many people. Ms. Maxwell is “filling that hole,” Ms. Sternheim added. “Filling that empty chair.”

“Ever since Eve was accused of tempting Adam with the apple,” she said, “women have been blamed for the bad behavior of men.”

The prosecution used one of Mr. Epstein’s pilots to set the scene for jurors.

The first witness for the prosecution was not one of the accusers but a private pilot: Lawrence Paul Visoski Jr., who had worked for Mr. Epstein from 1991 to 2019.

Mr. Visoski described, in broad strokes, the role Ms. Maxwell played in managing Mr. Epstein’s households and properties, describing their relationship as “couple-ish.” Guided by photographs presented as evidence, Mr. Visoski also described ferrying Mr. Epstein and his guests to various luxury residences in New York City; Paris; the U.S. Virgin Islands; Palm Beach, Fla.; and Santa Fe, N.M.

“Pretty much every four days we were on the road flying somewhere,” he said. Mr. Visoski said he did not always know precisely who was flying on Mr. Epstein’s planes with him.

On first day of trial, prosecutors say Maxwell and Epstein were ‘partners in crime.’

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The hotly anticipated trial of Ghislaine Maxwell drew members of the media and observers to the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on Monday.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

More than two years after Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in a jail cell a month after his arrest on sex-trafficking charges, Ghislaine Maxwell — the woman who prosecutors say helped him to recruit, groom and abuse young girls — went on trial on Monday in Manhattan.

Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein were “partners in crime,” a federal prosecutor, Lara Pomerantz, told the jury. Ms. Maxwell sexually exploited young girls by developing their trust, helped to normalize abusive sexual conduct and then “served them up” to Mr. Epstein in a decade-long scheme, the prosecutor said.

“The defendant and Epstein made young girls believe that their dreams could come true,” Ms. Pomerantz said in Federal District Court. “They made them feel special, but that was a cover.”

“Behind closed doors,” Ms. Pomerantz said, “the defendant and Epstein were committing heinous crimes. They were sexually abusing teenage girls.”

The trial of Ms. Maxwell, 59, the daughter of a British media mogul and a longtime fixture on the New York social scene, has been widely seen as the courtroom reckoning that Mr. Epstein avoided when he took his own life in prison.

Mr. Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on charges that he recruited dozens of girls to engage in sex acts with him at his estate in Palm Beach, Fla., and his mansion in Manhattan, paying them hundreds of dollars in cash after each encounter, a federal indictment said. He died the following month.

Ms. Maxwell, who was arrested in July 2020, faces charges that include sex trafficking of a minor, enticing and transporting minors to engage in illegal sex acts and three conspiracy counts. She could face up to 70 years in prison if convicted of all counts.

She has steadfastly maintained her innocence, and her lawyer, Bobbi C. Sternheim, told the jury that the evidence would not support the charges against her client. She suggested the memories of the Ms. Maxwell’s accusers were unreliable and tainted by “constant media reports.”

She also described Ms. Maxwell as a “scapegoat” for Mr. Epstein’s actions, adding, “Ever since Eve was accused of tempting Adam with the apple, women have been blamed for the bad behavior of men.”

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The first witness in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial is one of Epstein’s pilots.

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A demonstrator outside the Manhattan courtroom holds a poster depicting Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein and some of the famous men in whose circles they sometimes traveled.Credit... Dave Sanders for The New York Times

Prosecutors in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial called their first witness late Monday afternoon: Larry Visoski, one of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime pilots.

Mr. Visoski described, in broad strokes, the role Ms. Maxwell played in managing Mr. Epstein’s household and properties, describing their relationship as “couple-ish.” Guided by photographs presented as evidence, Mr. Visoski also described Mr. Epstein’s residences.

The government often uses the first witness to set the stage for the evidence and testimony to come. Mr. Visoski, who worked for Mr. Epstein from 1991 to 2019, is in a position to explain to the jury where Mr. Epstein’s homes were, how the financier’s travel was arranged, and to introduce evidence about who flew with him.

Mr. Visoski said he flew Mr. Epstein regularly — “pretty much every four days we were on the road flying somewhere.” He mostly flew Mr. Epstein between his palatial homes in New York City, Paris, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Palm Beach, Fla., and Santa Fe, N.M.

The advantages of private air travel, Mr. Visoski said, were that “you can leave when you want,” and “the security is much less.” Mr. Visoski said he did not always know precisely who was flying on Mr. Epstein’s planes with him.

Mr. Visoski testified for about half an hour before the jury was dismissed for the day. He is expected to return Tuesday morning to continue his testimony.

Women in civil lawsuits have accused Mr. Epstein of conspiring with associates, including his pilots, to facilitate sexual abuse and avoid law-enforcement detection. Some have described being transported, as minors, on Mr. Epstein’s private jet to his various residences. One of Mr. Epstein’s planes was nicknamed “The Lolita Express,” because he invited young women — and girls, some accusers have said — to entertain guests on board.

Mr. Epstein’s flights have been under scrutiny for years, and the government homed in on Mr. Visoski early in its investigation. Shortly after Mr. Epstein’s arrest in July 2019, on the tarmac at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, prosecutors in Manhattan issued grand jury subpoenas to Mr. Visoski and David Rodgers, another pilot. (An earlier version of this item misstated the year of Mr. Epstein’s arrest as 2020.)

Flight logs for Mr. Epstein’s planes, made public through civil litigation, show that the passenger list often included prominent politicians, academics and Hollywood celebrities. A lawyer for Ms. Maxwell described the flights as a “Hamptons Jitney in the air” for Mr. Epstein’s friends and associates.

An assistant U.S. attorney, Lara Pomerantz, said in her opening statement earlier on Monday that the flight logs will be part of the government’s case against Ms. Maxwell.

Defense lawyers say Ghislaine Maxwell is a ‘scapegoat’ for Epstein.

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Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who killed himself in federal jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, looms over the trial of his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.Credit...Uma Sanghvi/The Palm Beach Post, via AP

A defense lawyer suggested to jurors on Monday that the sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell was a misdirected effort by prosecutors who targeted her because they had lost the chance to put the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein on trial.

The lawyer, Bobbi C. Sternheim, took her turn addressing jurors after a prosecutor delivered a 35-minute opening statement that painted Ms. Maxwell in harsh terms as someone who “played an essential role” in a decade-long scheme to entice and manipulate teenage girls who were groomed methodically then sexually abused by Mr. Epstein.

Ms. Sternheim described her client as a “scapegoat” for Mr. Epstein’s actions. “Ever since Eve was accused of tempting Adam with the apple,” she said, “Women have been blamed for the bad behavior of men.”

She went on to say that Mr. Epstein’s death, while in federal custody in Manhattan, had left “a gaping hole in the pursuit of justice” for many people. Ms. Maxwell is “filling that hole,” Ms. Sternheim added. “Filling that empty chair.”

Ms. Sternheim urged jurors to be skeptical of the accounts they would hear from four witnesses who are expected to testify that they were abused by Mr. Epstein, saying: “This case is about memory, manipulation and money.”

She added that accusations from “the mouths of four accusers” include “unreliable and suspect” memories that could have been “corrupted” over the years or “contaminated” by “constant media reports.”

Ms. Sternheim also suggested repeatedly that testimony in Ms. Maxwell’s trial could be connected to a “desire for a big jackpot of money.”

At one point, Ms. Sternheim likened Mr. Epstein to a “21st century James Bond,” saying that his mystique had spurred curiosity and “his accusers have shaken the money tree.”

During her opening statement, Ms. Sternheim also sought to counter parts of the government’s narrative. Prosecutors had presented Ms. Maxwell as helping to lure girls who were sometimes flown by private jet to one of Mr. Epstein’s residences where they were said to have been abused.

The flights took place, Ms. Sternheim acknowledged but they should be thought of as a sort of “Hamptons Jitney in the air,” ferrying an array of Mr. Epstein’s many accomplished friends, including academics and a former astronaut.

And, Ms. Sternheim told jurors, some activity that prosecutors had referred to as “grooming” was “lawful conduct.”

“The government wants you to put a sinister, subjective motive,” she said, “where the evidence will show none existed.”

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Ghislaine Maxwell ‘exploited young girls’ and ‘served them up’ to Epstein, a prosecutor said.

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Ghislaine Maxwell was a “predator,” a federal prosecutor said.Credit...John Minchillo/Associated Press

A federal prosecutor described Ghislaine Maxwell as a “predator” who targeted young girls for sexual abuse, as opening arguments in the former socialite’s trial began Monday afternoon in a Manhattan courtroom.

“The defendant sexually exploited young girls,” Lara Pomerantz, an assistant U.S. attorney, told the jury, saying Ms. Maxwell developed trust with girls, “helped normalize abusive sexual conduct” and then “served them up” to Jeffrey Epstein, her longtime companion.

Ms. Maxwell, 59, the daughter of a British media tycoon, faces six counts stemming from what prosecutors say was her role in facilitating the sexual exploitation and abuse of girls by Mr. Epstein. She has steadfastly maintained her innocence.

Ms. Pomerantz on Monday depicted Ms. Maxwell as more than just a facilitator of Mr. Epstein’s abuse, saying they were “partners in crime.” In addition to bringing girls in as masseuses for Mr. Epstein, Ms. Maxwell was sometimes in the room while the abuse took place and sometimes touched the girls herself, Ms. Pomerantz said.

“Behind closed doors, the defendant and Epstein were committing heinous crimes,” Ms. Pomerantz said. “They were sexually abusing teenage girls.” (Ms. Maxwell is not charged with sexual abuse.)

The recruitment of girls for abuse “evolved over the course of a decade,” Ms. Pomerantz said. In the 1990s, she said, Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein themselves recruited girls, under the guise of mentorship and scholarship opportunities. By the 2000s, Ms. Pomerantz said, “they had devised a pyramid scheme of abuse,” in which they encouraged girls to recruit other young girls.

On Monday, Ms. Maxwell entered the courtroom without handcuffs, wearing a cream-colored sweater and black pants. About two dozen spectators lined the courtroom benches during opening statements.

The charges against Ms. Maxwell center on four accusers who say she groomed them to be abused by Mr. Epstein between 1994 and 2004, when they were underage. Those accusers, now adults, are expected to testify at trial, some under pseudonyms or with partial names, prosecutors have said.

Ms. Pomerantz began her opening with the story of one of those accusers, identified in court only as “Jane,” who Ms. Pomerantz said met Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell when the couple visited a summer camp for talented children. Jane was 14, Ms. Pomerantz said, and “this meeting was the beginning of a nightmare that would last for years.”

Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers have signaled that they will try to undermine the credibility of the accusers’ testimony and question the government’s motives for bringing a case against Ms. Maxwell. Her trial is widely seen as a proxy for the prosecution of Mr. Epstein, which was thwarted when he died in custody in 2019, about a month after his arrest.

Ms. Pomerantz suggested a possible motive for Ms. Maxwell’s participation, noting that as the abuse took place, Ms. Maxwell was “jet-setting in private planes and living a life of extraordinary luxury.”

The girls, Ms. Pomerantz said, “were just a means to support her lifestyle,” a way of making sure that Epstein, “who demanded constant sexual gratification from young girls, remained satisfied.”

Even in death, Jeffrey Epstein looms over Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking trial.

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Laura A. Menninger, left, and Jeffrey S. Pagliuca, right, lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, arrived at the Manhattan courthouse where Ms. Maxwell’s trial is set to begin. Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell got underway in earnest on Monday afternoon, with opening statements from the prosecution defense, after resolving some last minute issues involving two jurors.

Ms. Maxwell, 59, the daughter of a British media mogul and once a fixture in New York City’s social scene, faces six counts stemming from what prosecutors say was her role in facilitating the sexual exploitation and abuse of teenage girls and young women by Jeffrey Epstein, her longtime companion.

Even in death, Mr. Epstein looms over Ms. Maxwell’s trial, and his conduct is at the heart of the case. The trial is expected to provide a window into the life of one of the most notorious sex offenders in modern American history: Mr. Epstein’s exploits, his dealings with the criminal justice system and his death have been the subject of books, exposés, podcasts, conspiracy theories, lawsuits, investigations and documentaries. But they have never been aired in a federal trial.

Prosecutors say Ms. Maxwell “assisted, facilitated, and contributed to” Mr. Epstein’s crimes by helping him recruit, groom and abuse girls who were under 18.

Ms. Maxwell has denied wrongdoing. Her lawyers have questioned the motives of the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office in bringing the case, which is widely seen as a proxy for trying Mr. Epstein himself. The disgraced financier was arrested on sex-trafficking charges in July 2019 and was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell a month later.

A long line of spectators and members of the news media lined up outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan in the early morning hours on Monday, with hopes of being able to watch the first day of Ms. Maxwell’s trial. Unlike in the recent televised state trials of Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wis., and of three men who were convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Ga., there will be no video or recordings of Ms. Maxwell’s case, as cameras are barred from federal courtrooms.

The trial, which is expected to last around six weeks, is likely to include graphic testimony — including from women who say Mr. Epstein abused them when they were teenagers — and accounts from inside Mr. Epstein’s entourage. Possible government witnesses include at least one of his pilots and a former employee.

While the charged conduct in the case dates from around 1994 to 2004, Judge Alison J. Nathan has said she will allow prosecutors to present evidence that extends beyond this date range.

The jury will learn about the details of Mr. Epstein’s household and also about psychological terms like “grooming,” which is used to describe deliberate efforts made to make somebody — in this case, young girls — susceptible to abuse.

Jurors may also learn about the identities of other people who federal prosecutors say conspired with Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein in the sex-trafficking ring, pretrial filings show. They may learn of “influential men” whom Ms. Maxwell offered to set up on dates with young women, and others with whom Ms. Maxwell and Mr. Epstein socialized.

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Issues raised by two jurors briefly delayed opening statements in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial.

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The media and the public waited to enter the Lower Manhattan courthouse where Ghislaine Maxwell is standing trial.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

After a two-hour delay, a jury has been sworn in for Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial in downtown Manhattan, and opening statements are set to begin after lunch.

Eleventh-hour juror conflicts delayed the start of the trial, as two members of the panel raised scheduling and work-related issues.

At around 10 a.m., Judge Alison J. Nathan read out 18 numbers of potential jurors from a whittled-down pool culled from 231 candidates over several days of selection, and seated the jury. The anonymous jurors — including six alternates — were sent out of the courtroom. Opening arguments seemed to be about to begin.

But about 20 minutes later, Judge Nathan told the courtroom that one juror’s employer had told the juror it might not pay a salary during the expected six-week trial. Another juror’s spouse had booked a surprise trip over the Christmas holiday, which would interfere with two days of trial.

Balking by jurors late in the game is not uncommon, but neither is last-minute juror wrangling. Shortly before noon, Judge Nathan told the courtroom she had spoken with the first juror’s employer and had urged the employer to reconsider the leave policy — and she was giving the employer 10 minutes to figure it out.

That stretched into the next hour, as Judge Nathan continued ex parte negotiations with the employer. At around 12:15, she asked the prosecutors and the defense if they wanted to dismiss the juror or name an additional alternate from the remaining prospective jurors left in the pool, who were waiting elsewhere in the federal courthouse.

The decision was made to wait. As for the juror with the surprise vacation, Judge Nathan said she planned to keep that person on the jury.

At around 12:35, Judge Nathan said the employer issue had been resolved.

Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?

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Ghislaine Maxwell was a fixture on New York’s social scene during her long relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.Credit...Rick Bajornas/United Nations, via Associated Press

Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, a former girlfriend and business associate of Jeffrey Epstein, goes on trial Monday on charges that she helped recruit and traffic young women and girls to have sex with Mr. Epstein.

Ms. Maxwell, whose first name is pronounced ghee-LANE, is the youngest of nine children. She was born in France and grew up in a 53-room mansion in Buckinghamshire, England.

Her father, Robert Maxwell, was a publishing and media mogul. He founded Pergamon Press, a publishing house for science and medical books, owned the British tabloid The Mirror and had stakes in MTV Europe and Macmillan, an American publishing house. He would go on to buy The Daily News.

Ms. Maxwell moved to the U.S. in 1991 after her father’s death, and while living in a modest apartment on the Upper East Side, she began dating Mr. Epstein.

She and Mr. Epstein became close, and by the late 1990s, she was, as one former employee said, “the lady of the house,” because of how much time she spent at Mr. Epstein's Palm Beach mansion.

Her personality was magnetic and she attracted high-profile visitors to the estate, including former President Donald J. Trump and Prince Andrew of Britain. Christopher Mason, a friend of Ms. Maxwell and a journalist, described her in 2019 to The New York Times as “saucy” and “fantastically entertaining.”

Ms. Maxwell moved in 2000 to a 7,000-square-foot townhouse that was less than 10 blocks away from Mr. Epstein’s mansion. The house cost $4.95 million and was purchased by an anonymous limited liability company with the same address as the office of J. Epstein & Co.

She continued to spend time at Mr. Epstein’s Florida and New York mansions, and, according to former employees, lawsuits and law enforcement officials, Ms. Maxwell helped recruit masseuses for Mr. Epstein, some of them teenagers.

But Mr. Epstein, who killed himself in 2019, was charged with sexually exploiting those minors during those massages. And Ms. Maxwell is accused of helping to facilitate the abuse.

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Here are the charges Ghislaine Maxwell faces.

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Audrey Strauss was the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York when she announced the charges against Ghislaine Maxwell in July 2020.Credit...Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Ghislaine Maxwell faces six counts in her federal trial, which relate to accusations that she facilitated the sexual exploitation of girls for her longtime companion, the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The six counts center on the accounts of four accusers. The charges include:

  • One count of enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, in which Ms. Maxwell is accused of coercing one girl — identified as Minor Victim 1 in charging documents — to travel from Florida to New York, between 1994 and 1997, to engage in sex acts with Mr. Epstein.

  • One count of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sex acts, which accuses Ms. Maxwell of bringing the same girl from Florida to New York on numerous occasions.

  • One count of sex trafficking of a minor, which charges that between 2001 and 2004, Ms. Maxwell recruited, enticed and transported another girl — identified in the charges as Minor Victim 4 — to engage in at least one commercial sex act with Mr. Epstein.

  • And three counts of conspiracy, which are related to the other counts. The conspiracy counts in the indictment are more expansive, involving all four accusers and homes in the United States and in London. These charges involve accusations that Ms. Maxwell worked with Mr. Epstein to secure underage girls for sex acts, for example, by encouraging one to give Mr. Epstein massages in London between 1994 and 1995.

Ms. Maxwell, 59, could face a lengthy prison term if convicted. Conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors carries a maximum 40-year sentence; the other charges have maximum penalties of five or 10 years.

When Ms. Maxwell was arrested in July 2020, she was also charged with two counts of perjury, accusing her of lying under oath in 2016 during depositions for a lawsuit related to Mr. Epstein. In April, Judge Alison J. Nathan granted the defense’s request to sever the perjury counts, which will be tried separately.

Ghislaine Maxwell sued Epstein’s estate for legal fees.

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A portion of Jeffery Epstein’s estate on the coast of Little Saint James Island.Credit...Gabriella N. Baez for The New York Times

Ghislaine Maxwell, a former girlfriend and longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, accused him and his estate in a March 2020 lawsuit of not following through on promises to pay her legal fees. The lawsuit, which was filed in the Superior Court in the U.S. Virgin Islands, appears to have been at a standstill since August 2020.

Ms. Maxwell argued in the lawsuit that Mr. Epstein promised to support her financially numerous times, including in writing and in conversation. She also argued that Darren Indyke, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Epstein and the executor of Mr. Epstein’s estate, also said the estate would pay her legal fees.

But her legal fees mounted as numerous women accused her of having helped Mr. Epstein recruit young women for sex trafficking. Those fees were not paid, she argued, and a letter she sent to the estate in November 2019 had been ignored.

It remained unclear who was footing the bill for Ms. Maxwell’s defense as opening arguments were expected to start on Monday in her sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court.

Mr. Indyke and Richard D. Kahn, another executor of the state, responded in May 2020 by asking the court to dismiss the case. They pointed to a U.S. Virgin Islands law that prevented Ms. Maxwell from filing a complaint against the estate until September 2020. They called her lawsuit “premature.” Ms. Maxwell agreed shortly afterward to halt proceedings until September 2020.

But in July 2020, U.S. Virgin Island authorities moved to intervene in the case. They noted that Ms. Maxwell had just been arrested, and that Mr. Indyke and Mr. Kahn had a pending civil action against them accusing them of involvement in Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme. In its court papers, the government’s lawyers argued Mr. Epstein’s assets should not be “wrongfully dissipated by Maxwell’s suspect claims” regarding paying her legal fees.

Government lawyers also moved to intervene on the ground that Ms. Maxwell had ignored a subpoena in a Virgin Islands investigation into whether she had participated in Mr. Epstein’s sex-trafficking scheme. They called her use of the courts “inappropriate.” The government gave her until August 2020 to respond to the motion.

But there has been no further movement in the case since August 2020, according to documents filed on the case docket. Ms. Maxwell has been in jail since July 2020.

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How the juror pool in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial was whittled down.

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Ghislaine Maxwell will be tried in the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

A science teacher, a real estate broker, two retired judges and a former personal assistant who reads at least one book a day: They were among the dozens of prospective jurors who appeared in Federal District Court in Manhattan on Monday as jury selection wrapped up in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial.

A pool of 231 candidates was whittled down to just under five dozen earlier this month during two-and-a-half days of jury selection, where prosecutors, Ms. Maxwell and her lawyers watched as Judge Alison J. Nathan asked each of them a series of questions, including what they knew about Ms. Maxwell and her longtime companion, Jeffrey Epstein, and if that information would affect their ability to be impartial.

Many of the potential jurors said they had heard or seen news reports about Mr. Epstein, a financier who died in July 2019 at a Manhattan detention center while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death was later ruled a suicide.

Yet most said they knew little, if anything, about Ms. Maxwell. Some prospective jurors told the court they had seen her name appear in headlines, articles or nightly newscasts in connection to Mr. Epstein, and a few recalled seeing photographs of them together. And while others remembered a bit more, like the nature of the charges against her, all 58 said that, whatever they had heard, they could set it aside and decide the case based on the facts presented at trial.

“It’s my duty as a citizen to be impartial,” said one 25-year-old Walgreens manager, who will be a part of Monday’s jury pool. “This is the cornerstone of our justice system, so I have to do my job.”

As Judge Nathan questioned the jurors about their education, occupations and their familiarity with names and places that were likely to come up during the trial, Ms. Maxwell periodically scribbled in her notebook, ran her fingers through her dark hair and adjusted the collar of her black turtleneck. From time to time she also put her arm around the shoulders of her lawyer, Bobbi C. Sternheim, and whispered in her ear.

On the final day of the jury selection process, Ms. Maxwell embraced each member of her defense team and blew kisses to her sister, Isabel Maxwell, before two U.S. marshals escorted her out of the courtroom.

The final jury was chosen on Monday morning ahead of opening arguments.

A timeline of major events in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell.

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Demonstrators outside federal court in Manhattan, where a judge held a bail hearing by video for Ghislaine Maxwell in July.Credit...Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

The sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a former girlfriend and longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, is set to begin Monday. Here are some of the events that led to the highly anticipated trial:

July 7, 2019

Mr. Epstein was arrested at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Epstein of engaging in criminal sex acts with minors and women, some as young as 14.

Aug. 10, 2019

Mr. Epstein killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell.

Mr. Epstein hanged himself in his jail cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center; he was not under suicide watch at the time of his death. He had just been denied bail on federal sex trafficking charges.

March 2020

Ms. Maxwell sued Mr. Epstein’s estate.

Ms. Maxwell said in the lawsuit that Mr. Epstein and Darren Indyke, a longtime lawyer for Mr. Epstein and the executor of his estate, both promised to pay her legal fees, but she said they hadn’t. Her legal fees mounted as more women claimed she helped Mr. Epstein recruit them for sexual activity when they were underage.

July 2020

Ms. Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire.

The indictment listed three minor victims who say they were recruited by Ms. Maxwell from 1994 to 1997 for criminal sexual activity.

July 2020

Ms. Maxwell asks for release on $5 million bond.

Her lawyers asked a federal judge in Manhattan to release her from jail on $5 million bond. Judge Alison J. Nathan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan denied the request after prosecutors argued that Ms. Maxwell posed a high risk of fleeing before her trial.

December 2020

Ms. Maxwell calls jail “oppressive.”

Ms. Maxwell asked again to be released, this time on $28.5 million bond, arguing that the conditions of her Brooklyn jail were “oppressive.” But once again the request was denied, after prosecutors said the probability she would flee was extremely high. Prosecutors also said the conditions in jail were reasonable, pointing to her personal shower, phone and two computers.

March 2021

Ms. Maxwell is charged with sex trafficking a 14-year-old.

A new indictment accuses Ms. Maxwell of grooming an additional minor. She is charged with sex trafficking a 14-year-old girl who engaged in sexual acts with Mr. Epstein at his Palm Beach, Fla., estate.

November 2021

Ms. Maxwell goes on trial.

Opening arguments are set for Monday.

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Who is Alison Nathan, the judge in the Ghislaine Maxwell case?

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Alison J. Nathan, a federal district court judge in Manhattan, is known to keep a firm grip on her courtroom. Credit...U.S. District Court For The Southern District Of New York, via Reuters

During a pretrial conference a week before the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell was set to begin in earnest, a prosecutor indicated that the government and defense still were at odds over some issues.

A defense lawyer began to respond, but Judge Alison J. Nathan cut him off.

“I don’t want a speech,” she said, directing that the parties have a “mature, reasonable discussion and come to some agreement where agreement can be had.” If good-faith disputes remained, she said, they could be put in writing, adding, “I’ll be happy to resolve it.”

The moment came and went quickly, but it underscored an observable fact about Judge Nathan, 49, now in her 10th year as a member of Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York: She has firm command of her courtroom.

“She is known for her intellect and independence,” said Daniel C. Richman, a professor of criminal law at Columbia Law School. “She has a crisp, no-nonsense attitude toward legal issues and how they get presented and resolved.”

In the Maxwell case, Judge Nathan has already dispensed with an array of pretrial disputes — some as narrow as whether prosecutors could refer to her accusers as “victims” (the judge ruled they could when describing the four women whose accounts are at the center of the indictment); and more weighty questions, like whether Ms. Maxwell, 59, should be granted bail. (The judge has repeatedly denied her requests, most recently three weeks ago.)

But when Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers complained on Nov. 1 that their client was awakened at 3:45 a.m. for a court hearing and then had to wait for hours in a cold cellblock with little food, Judge Nathan ordered that Ms. Maxwell be transported to and from the courthouse “in a way that is humane, proper and consistent with security protocols.”

Just two weeks ago, President Biden nominated Judge Nathan to the prestigious U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York. The White House noted at the time that she would be the second openly gay woman to serve on any federal circuit court if she was confirmed by the Senate.

In at least two cases in recent years, Judge Nathan, who was appointed in 2011 to the District Court by President Barack Obama, sharply criticized the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan after it was accused of failing to turn over potentially favorable evidence to the defense before trial.

On Nov. 17, after taking the bench before another day of questioning prospective jurors, Judge Nathan briefly acknowledged the news of her potential elevation.

“Needless to say I am honored,” she said, adding that if she were nominated, she would continue to do her “day job, which means presiding over this trial through completion and handling the literally hundreds of other civil and criminal matters on my docket.”

Ghislaine Maxwell was ‘a non-presence’ in the New Hampshire town where she was arrested.

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Bicyclists pedal through downtown Bradford, N.H., the small New Hampshire town where Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested.Credit...Steven Senne/Associated Press

Before her arrest on charges of trafficking teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell was a globe-trotter, described by the authorities as taking international flights to the United Kingdom, Japan and Qatar.

But Ms. Maxwell was taken into custody last year in a place with a decidedly different flavor: the small town of Bradford, N.H., in a rural area near several state parks and about 25 miles west of Concord, the state capital.

The arrest of someone connected to a high-profile case surprised many in Bradford, said Andrew Pinard, chairman of the town Board of Selectmen.

“She was not seen in the community, ” he said by phone not long before Ms. Maxwell’s trial began in Manhattan. “People were not aware she was there, she was a non-presence.”

According to court documents filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, Ms. Maxwell took pains to avoid attention.

She had been hiding for about a year before her arrest, prosecutors wrote, adding that she had switched her email address and registered a new phone number under the name “G Max.” And the 156-acre property where Ms. Maxwell had been living was acquired in an all-cash purchase using a “carefully anonymized” limited liability company, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors wrote that Ms. Maxwell appeared to have passports from the United States, France and the United Kingdom as well as access to significant amounts of money.

While arguing that she posed “an extreme risk of flight” and should be held in custody before her trial, they provided details of her arrest on the morning of July 2, 2020.

The property in Bradford was barred by a locked gate and patrolled by a private security guard, prosecutors wrote. Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced themselves as they approached the main house and directed Ms. Maxwell to open the door, prosecutors added, then watched through a window as she instead tried to flee to another room in the house, “quickly shutting a door behind her.”

After getting into the house, prosecutors said, F.B.I. agents found Ms. Maxwell in an inner room and saw a cellphone wrapped in tin foil on top of a desk — “a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection.”

A news report from Bradford after the arrest described some people stopping at the end of a driveway, near a sign that bore the name “Tuckedaway,” to muse on the fact that Ms. Maxwell had been living there.

As Ms. Maxwell’s trial approached last month, Mr. Pinard said that people in Bradford were more chagrined than intrigued by the town’s fleeting connection. He said few locals would be likely to seek out gavel-to-gavel coverage of her trial.

“They’ve got more important things to worry about,” he said. “Like Covid, their property taxes and their children having opportunities in school.”

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