the times | Tuesday December 21 2021 11
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Dear diary
January 7, 1996... There is so much to tell
about the trip I don’t know
where to begin. The best
night was when Maria and I
saw Phantom of the Opera.
We went to Epstein’s house
- had champagne w/ him. I
found him down to earth +
easy to talk to. I thanked
him so much for the trip,
etc, we then took his car —
his driver actually took us —
to Phantom. I don’t know
any play could be so
moving. I had seen it before
but still couldn’t believe it. I
bawled — it was fantastic.
After the play we walked
around the plaza + went
home it was so much fun...Jan 25, 1996
Went to Jeffrey Epstein’s
mansion, went to the Met, a
pretty fun New Year’s Eve
party, went to the thrift
stores where I got an
amazing dress for prom, it’s
from the fifties, lace with
pink flowers w rhinestones
in the middle all over it, it is
my dream dress... One
night we went to the
movies w/Jeffrey Epstein. It
was a little weird one of
those things that is hard to
explain we were sitting nextto each other + he put out
his hand for me to hold +
we were holding hands (not
weird, normal + fine) then
he kind of caressed/rubbed
my arm & shoe/foot — it
was one of those things that
just gave me a weird feeling
but wasn’t that weird +
probably normal — the one
thing that kind of weirded
me out about it was he let
go of my hand when he was
talking to Maria — oh well I
decided it was no big deal, it
just made me mad because
he is being so amazing —
paying for a summer
program of me — helping w/college — he is so nice and
so generous w/everyone + I
just didn’t want to have any
weird feelings about it — I
didn’t/couldn’t say anything
to Maria about it because
she worships him and it
would just create problems.
I wouldn’t tell anyone else
because it is not a big deal +
I didn’t want to portray him
in a bad light. I really don’t
think it is a big deal. I think
he is just a relaxed guy +
likes to flirt, or was being
fatherly or something. I
know this sounds like me
trying to justify him doing
something weird, but it isn’t.shown a photograph of Maxwell giving
Epstein a foot massage with her breasts.
Moe said that a part of Maxwell’s role
in grooming girls for abuse was that she
“made this kind of sexual behaviour
feel normal and casual”. She said:
“That’s exactly what we are looking at
in these photographs.”
The accuser referred to as Jane
recalled visiting and finding Maxwell
topless by the pool. Moe said: “YouMaxwell ‘trafficked teenagers for $30m’
common sense tells you that you don’t
give someone more than $30 million
unless they are giving you exactly what
you want. What Epstein wanted was to
touch under-age girls. When Maxwell
took that money she knew what it was
for, and now you know, don’t you? It was
payment for committing terrible crimes
with Jeffrey Epstein.”
The daughter of Robert Maxwell, the
British press baron, is charged with
enticing and transporting under-aged
girls for illegal sexual acts between 1994
and 2004, as well as two charges of sex
trafficking. She denies the charges.
The jury could deliver a verdict
before Maxwell’s 60th birthday on
Christmas Day.
Moe told the court that Maxwell
targeted the same sort of teenagers.
“She targeted a girl whose father had
just died,” she said. “She targeted a girl
whose mother was an alcoholic. She
targeted a girl with a single mum who
was struggling to raise her daughters.
Maxwell was a sophisticated predator
who knew exactly what she was doing.She ran the same playbook again and
again and again.”
Moe told the jury that she would offer
“eight different reasons that you know
Maxwell is guilty”. The first was that
Maxwell knew exactly what she was
doing when she recruited and groomed
young girls for abuse because “Maxwell
and Epstein were partners... partners
in crime.”
She referred to an essay about their
relationship found on a computer at
Epstein’s home that appeared to be
registered to Maxwell, in a document
that she appeared to have created,
declaring that they had been “a couple
for 11 years” and were “great partners”.
Moe said that Maxwell had written it.
“When you are with someone for 11
years you know what they like,” she
said. “Epstein liked under-age girls...
and Maxwell knew it.”
A new photograph of Maxwell and
Epstein swimming naked together in a
pool was shown to the court. Moe said:
“They are not alone. Someone else is
taking the picture.” The court was alsoknow that’s true because now you have
seen Maxwell topless by the pool too.”
Four of Maxwell’s siblings — Isabel,
Christine, Kevin and Ian — were in
court for the first time to hear the
closing statements, sitting at the front
of the public gallery, a few feet from the
lectern where Moe was speaking.
Christine and Kevin appeared to be
taking notes.
Laura Menninger, for the defence,
said that Maxwell was an innocent
woman who had committed no crime
and only found herself on trial because
Epstein could not be brought to justice.
He killed himself if prison in August
2019 while awaiting trial.
Maxwell’s accusers were motivated
by money from a fund set up to
compensate alleged Epstein victims,
Menninger said, and their stories were
inconsistent and unconvincing. She
added that Maxwell had been
portrayed as “Cruella De Vil and the
lady wears Prada” and was being
blamed for the crimes of a man.
The trial continues.Will Pavia, Keiran Southern New York
A masked Ghislaine Maxwell listens to
the closing statement by Alison MoeUS DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICEOn the final day of Ghislaine Maxwell’s
trial, jurors were shown a journal entry
written by a 16-year-old girl a quarter of
a century ago.
The diary belonged to Annie Farmer,
the only alleged victim of Maxwell to
testify under her real name. It gave a
nearly contemporaneous record of a
meeting with Jeffrey Epstein.
When jurors were introduced to the
teenage diarist, they were also shown a
photograph of Farmer, taken for her
junior, or penultimate, year of high
school in Arizona and another of the
16-year-old getting ready for her high
school prom.
Farmer, a psychologist who is now 42,
recalled buying the dress on a trip to see
her sister Maria, an aspiring artist in
New York who worked for Epstein. She
said that the financier paid for her trip.
In her first account of the trip in her
journal, in January 1996, she said it
had “changed my whole outlook
on life” and wrote of having
champagne in Epstein’s New
York mansion. She told how his
chauffeur drove them to see
Phantom of the Opera.
In another entry a few
weeks later, however, she
wrote of going to the cine-
ma with her sister and
Epstein, who sat
between them. It
appeared as if
she were trying
to work out what
had happened.
In the dark
theatre “he put out
his hand for me to
hold + we were hold-
ing hands (not weird,
normal + fine). Then
he kind of caressed
my arm and... foot. It
was one of those
things that just gave
me a weird feeling but
Ghislaine Maxwell was a grown
woman who preyed on vulnerable kids,
a lawyer for the prosecution has told a
court in New York.
Alison Moe said that Maxwell
delivered girls from troubled homes to
Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex
offender, in return for $30 million. Moe
described her as a sophisticated and
dangerous predator who used the same
technique again and again.
The closing statement was illustrated
with phone numbers for teenage
masseurs in Maxwell’s “little black
book”, sexually explicit drawings from
the massage room in Epstein’s Palm
Beach mansion and a photograph of
her swimming naked with Epstein.
Moe showed bank records suggesting
that Epstein made three multimillion-
dollar transfers to accounts in Max-
well’s name between 1999 and 2007. She
said: “At this point, you ask yourself
what was Maxwell doing for Epstein
that was worth $30.7 million? Your
I felt weird as Epstein
kind of stroked my foot,
girl wrote in journal
Will Pavia, Keiran Southern wasn’t that weird + probably normal —
the one thing that weirded me out
about it was he let go of my hand when
he was talking to Maria. It just made me
mad because he is being so amazing.”
She said that he had paid for her trip
and was funding a summer programme
in which she travelled to Thailand later
that year — jurors were shown a picture
from the trip.
She wrote that she decided not to
mention it because it would “just create
problems” for her sister.
In her testimony, Farmer said that
she was uneasy when Epstein invited
her to visit his ranch in New Mexico.
She said that her mother believed there
would be other students visiting as well.
When she found herself alone on the
ranch with Epstein and Maxwell, she
was reassured that Maxwell was there,
she said.
She described a trip to the cinema
with the pair, when Epstein again began
to caress her hand and rub her
foot. This time “he didn’t seem
to be concerned about hiding
those behaviors”, she said. “He
was very blatant in doing it
throughout the film.”
She said that Maxwell later
encouraged her to give Ep-
stein a foot massage and she
gave Farmer a massage,
with Farmer topless. She
said that Maxwell
rubbed her chest.
Maxwell’s lawyers
pointed out during
cross-examination
that there was no
mention of the older
woman in her journal.
In a closing state-
ment yesterday, Alison
Moe, for the prosecution,
asked jurors to compare
the journal entry with what
she said Epstein did in the
cinema in New Mexico,
with Maxwell at his side.
“He was doing it very
openly,” Moe said. “He
didn’t have to hide it from
Maxwell because she was
in on it.”
The trial continues.
Annie Farmer, 42,
went to Thailand at
16 or 17 on a trip
funded by Epstein