Riveting courtroom footage revealed Ghislaine Maxwell’s sister Christine collapsing in tears after the judge announced the alleged sex trafficker would spend her 60th birthday on Christmas Day behind bars as the jury broke from deliberations for the weekend.
Sobbing Christine can be seen being comforted by her twin sister Isabel who also appears wracked with apprehension. They were left distraught by the news Ghislaine would not discover her fate until after Christmas – with the socialite now forced to spend Christmas Day – which is also her 60th birthday – behind bars.
The sisters and their brothers, Ian and Kevin Maxwell, who can also be seen in the video anxiously awaiting a verdict Wednesday, will now have to wait at least 48 hours to learn their sister’s fate for the unspeakable crimes she is accused of that see her facing up to 80 years in a cage.
Sobbing Christine, at left, can be seen being comforted by her twin sister Isabel in the backroom of a New York courthouse as they await a verdict in their sister’s sex trial
Isabel, 71, also appeared wracked with apprehension as her twin sister buried her face in her hands after hearing that their younger sibling Ghislaine will spend Christmas – which happens to be the British socialite’s 60th birthday as well
The siblings were accompanied by younger brothers Ian (second from left) and Kevin during the tense sit down, which was captured on video obtained by ITV’s Good Morning Britain
Ian, 65, appeared to hang his head in defeat after hearing the news about his incarcerated younger sister
Kevin, 62, also appeared extremely anxious during the clip, which spanned less than a minute
The Maxwells, children of notorious former English publishing magnate Robert Maxwell who died after plunging from his yacht in 1991, have been a steady courtroom presence in support of their accused sibling who has been locked up in the notorious Brooklyn House of Detention since her July 2020 arrest.
The jury considering the charges against Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam will resume deliberations on Monday.
Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of recruiting and transporting underage girls for Epstein, who allegedly hung himself while awaiting trial in New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center on July 16, 2019. She is said to have joined in the abuse of Epstein’s victims, who were aged as young as 14, but denies the allegations.
A bruised Ghislaine Maxwell is seen in this photo of her alleged mistreatment in prison
The jury had broke for the holidays on Wednesday after failing to reach a verdict in the highly publicized sex trafficking trial, following two full days of painstaking deliberations.
However, when offered the chance to deliberate on Thursday, jurors replied with a note to the judge saying: ‘No, thank you. Jurors have made plans for tomorrow.’
And with court closed Friday for Christmas, the decision means Maxwell will spend the holiday – and her 60th birthday – behind bars, anxiously awaiting a verdict.
Maxwell, who is facing 80 years in prison if convicted, has been in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which she’s described as a ‘hell hole’, since her arrest in July 2020.
She appeared relaxed and was laughing with her lawyers and gave each a hug before being taken away Wednesday.
The court will break for the rest of the week and will come back on Monday.
Maxwell has maintained her innocence and her lawyers have bashed her accusers as having false memory and being motivated by money.
In legal filings earlier this year, Maxwell claimed her treatment in prison is so bad it would be ‘fit for Hannibal Lecter’.
But they are not appropriate for a ’59-year old woman who poses no threat to anyone’, Maxwell’s lawyers claimed.
At one point, Maxwell ‘barricade’ herself in the video conference room in prison with a cart of legal documents, prosecutors claimed and was deemed a ‘security threat’ by blocking the door and preventing guards from accessing the room.
The jury of six men and six women has gone home for the holidays after the third day of deliberation. The main jury is seen in a court sketch Tuesday
Empty seats are depicted by the court artist as the jury continued deliberations beofre deciding to quit for the Christmas break
Ghislaine Maxwell will spend Christmas Day in a 10x12ft prison cell in New York as she awaits a verdict in her high-profile sex trafficking case
Pictured: The Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) where Ghislaine Maxwell is being held
Judge Alison Nathan told the jury to be ‘safe’ over the Christmas break due to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
She said she wanted them back ‘healthy’ on Monday when everyone attending the court in New York will have to wear N95 or KN95 masks to enter the building.
Near the end of the day the jury asked for another copy of the transcript of the accuser Jane’s testimony.
They also asked for the testimony of Kate, another accuser, and Epstein’s former Palm Beach House manager Juan Alessi.
Maxwell, 59, denies six counts of recruiting and transporting underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein.
On Tuesday – the second day of deliberation – the jurors appeared to be zeroing on two accusers.
They deliberated for the whole day Tuesday and sent four notes to the judge including one which related to Annie Farmer.
They wanted to know if they could use her testimony for two counts of conspiracy to entice and transport an underage girl to engage in sex acts.
Isabel Maxwell leaves the federal courthouse where her sister, Ghislaine Maxwell, is on trial for sex trafficking
Laura Menninger and Jeffrey Pagliuca, attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell, leave Thurgood Marshall Federal Court on Wednesday
Judge Nathan said she would tell them that they could.
Earlier the jury asked to see notes of an FBI interview that Carolyn gave in 2007, the first time she spoke to law enforcement about being abused by Epstein.
Judge Nathan said that it had not been entered into evidence so they could not see it.
However the jury could refer to its mention in Carolyn’s cross examination by the defense.
At 10.10am after just over an hour of deliberating on Tuesday the jury sent their first note.
Judge Alison Nathan said the jury were asking for the transcripts of testimony from Jane, Annie and Carolyn – but did not mention Kate.
Kate is the only accuser whose claims should not be considered crimes as charged in the indictment.
Prosecutor Maurene Comey said that both sides needed to agree to some redactions before giving the transcripts over.
Defense lawyer Bobbi Sternheim agreed.
The jury were not brought out and Judge Nathan said she would give them the transcripts in the deliberation room.
Maxwell walked into court wearing a black turtleneck sweat and black pants while holding a green folder.
She hugged her lawyers and waved at a young woman in the public gallery.
Maxwell’s defense delivered closing arguments Monday afternoon, telling the jury that she is ‘an innocent woman wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit.’
In her closing remarks, Maxwell’s lawyer Laura Menninger said: ‘The government has failed to prove any charge beyond a reasonable doubt and the only correct verdict in this case is not guilty on each count.’
The defense again attempted to discredit the accounts of the four accusers, as Menninger stated, ‘The evidence has established what we told you it would, that the stories relied on by the government are erroneous memories, manipulation and money. But in this case the order is reversed. The money brought the accusers to the FBI where their personal injury lawyers sat right there.’
As for how Maxwell was portrayed, Menninger said that she had been made to look like ‘Cruella de Vil and the Devil Wears Prada all wrapped up into one’.
Such a portrait was ‘as old as Hollywood’, Menninger said.
Menninger said, ‘The lawyers manipulated their stories and the government accepted their stories without ever corroborating them.’
Menninger said that ‘suddenly’ the accusers ‘recovered memories years later.’
Isabel Maxwell stands in front of the press after leaving the Manhattan Federal Court on Tuesday night
Members of the prosecution team at the Ghislaine Maxwell trial walk out of the Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse with boxes of papers as the jury deliberates
She said: ‘The recovered memories that Ghislaine was involved, that Ghislaine was there, that Ghislaine was the culprit.’
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for the whole day and sent four notes to the judge including one which related to Annie Farmer (pictured in a school photo)
Menninger said that the prosecution spent a lot of time talking about Epstein’s lifestyle, about his wealth and his property and his private planes ‘just like a sensationalist tabloid would’.
Menninger said that Epstein was a ‘master manipulator’ who ‘abused his money and his power’.
She said: ‘We are not here to defend Jeffrey Epstein, he is not my client’, but she added: ‘Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein’.
Menninger claimed that when Epstein died the prosecution ‘pivoted’ to going after Maxwell.
The idea was that ‘Ghislaine was there, she must have known.’
Menninger criticized prosecutors for showing the jury dozens of photos out of 38,000 seized from Epstein’s New York home in 2019.
She said: Where are the other 31,960 photos? Who was in those photos? Was it other girlfriends? Other women?
Nor should the jury draw any inference from Epstein keeping photos of Maxwell. Menninger asked the jury that if an ex boyfriend or girlfriend had photos of them, would that make them a ‘sex offender’?
Menninger condemned the use of such images as ‘straight up sensationalism.’
The couple appear in one photo in what appears to be a European city. Ghislaine is seen kissing Jeffrey Epstein on the cheek
Turning to the accusers’ memories, Menninger said that they ‘inserted Ghislaine Maxwell into their narrative’ after they ‘lawyered up’.
Menninger said: ‘You don’t need a lawyer to talk to the FBI’.
Menninger said that it fell to the defense to ask the ‘tough questions’ of the accusers and cross examination had shown that the ‘truth was manipulated and changed over time’ for the purpose of the victims getting a payday.
Menninger went through inconsistencies in the statements by Jane and Carolyn and said that they had suffered from ‘post event suggestion’, as their ‘false memory’ expert Elizabeth Loftus had described it – adding new and false information after the event.
According to Menninger, the prosecution had ‘broken promises’ to produce numerous house staff, family members and other witnesses to back up the claims.
The idea put forward by prosecutors Maxwell became a ‘facilitator of sexual abuse’ for Epstein to maintain her wealthy ‘lifestyle’ was wrong.
Menninger said that Maxwell at the time was a ‘beautiful woman in her 30s’ who was just starting out on her career.
Epstein was ‘manipulating everyone around him’ and ‘dating women behind her (Maxwell’s) back’.
Menninger said that ‘maybe it was Jeffrey who needed Ghislaine and her connections’, rather than her needing him for his money.
Turning to each accuser, Menninger said that Jane was like an ‘actress who forgot her lines’ – Jane is an actress on a soap opera.