Jury selection for Ghislaine Maxwell’s long-anticipated sex-trafficking trial in Manhattan federal court will kick off Thursday morning as some 600 potential jurors will begin filling out questionnaires that will be used to determine who sits on the panel.
Questionnaires will be filled out by the prospective jurors Thursday, Friday and on Nov. 12, Judge Alison Nathan ordered last month. A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates will be officially empaneled later in November before openings in the trial begin on Nov. 29.
On Thursday, prospective jurors will answer typical questions about trial logistics — like if they will have an issue arriving at the courthouse every day at 9:30 a.m. — but will also be posed questions crafted to show if they can be impartial toward an accused sex predator.
“During the trial, you will hear evidence alleging sex crimes against underage girls. Some of the evidence in this case will involve sexually suggestive or sexually explicit conduct,” one of the questions on a draft questionnaire filed publicly in the case states.
“Is there anything about the nature of this case and the accusations as summarized at the beginning of this questionnaire that might make it difficult for you to be a fair and impartial juror in this case?” it continues.
“Do you have any specific views or feelings concerning laws regarding the age at which individuals can or cannot consent to sexual activity with other individuals that would affect your ability to serve as a fair and impartial juror?” another question states.
The judge warned prospective jurors not to discuss the case with anyone or research it, on the internet or anywhere else.
She said the final jury of 12 jurors and six alternates will be asked to render a verdict after a trial expected to last about six weeks based only on evidence they learn about in the courtroom.
Defendant Ghislaine Maxwell has said she is innocent of charges alleging that she recruited teenagers who were not yet adults for Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 to 2004, Judge Alison J. Nathan told 132 prospective jurors.
Maxwell, a British socialite and media heir, has been locked up in a notorious Brooklyn jail for more than a year awaiting her day in court. She has pleaded not guilty and fought unsuccessfully several times to be released on bond pending trial.
Maxwell is accused in a six-count indictment of grooming and procuring underage girls for multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse from 1994 through 2004.
Maxwell groomed underage girls for Epstein by developing a rapport with them that would lead to sexual abuse by the pedophile, prosecutors charged in the indictment.
“Maxwell would try to normalize sexual abuse for a minor victim by, among other things, discussing sexual topics, undressing in front of the victim, being present when a minor victim was undressed, and/or being present for sex acts involving the minor victim and Epstein,” prosecutors wrote.
In some instances, Maxwell witnessed or participated in the abuse of minor girls by Epstein, prosecutors charged.
Maxwell, 59, has been in a federal jail in Brooklyn since her July 2020 arrest. Epstein, her onetime boyfriend, was found unresponsive in his cell in a federal Manhattan lockup in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial. His death was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell's lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, resumed a request Wednesday that her client be released on $28.5 million bail, saying that deplorable jail conditions and harsh treatment of Maxwell have made it difficult for her to prepare for trial.
Her bail request, already rejected three times by the judge, came in a letter in which she claimed Maxwell has been touched in a sexually inappropriate manner by corrections officers on multiple occasions.
In an email response to a question about Maxwell's treatment, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Randilee Giamusso wrote that the bureau declines to comment on conditions of confinement for any particular inmate.
Epstein killed himself in a Lower Manhattan jail cell after he was arrested for trafficking in 2019.