The conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell in her sex-trafficking trial is a resounding victory for her prosecution team and especially assistant US attorney Lara Pomerantz, who become one of the high-profile figures in court.
The prosecution team – led by former acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, Audrey Strauss – had faced immense pressure to secure a guilty verdict and had been portrayed as relatively youthful compared to Maxwell’s heavy-hitting defense team.
But in the end, by securing guilty verdicts on five out of six charges, including sex trafficking, the prosecution fulfilled its goals. It was a particular triumph for Pomerantz, 37, who hit the headlines by delivering the prosecution’s opening statement.
She described Maxwell in clear terms as a vital enabler in her boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of his young victims and physically present. “She put them at ease and made them feel safe, all so that they could be sexually abused by a middle-aged man. There were times when she was in the room when it happened,” she said.
Pomerantz’s words set a tone for the whole trial, as the prosecution hit home its message that the crimes were not just the acts of Epstein, but of Maxwell too. “They were partners in crime. They had a playbook,” Pomerantz said.
The Maxwell trial is not Pomerantz’s first-high profile case involving sex crimes though. In August 2016, she oversaw the prosecution of six men who were charged with trafficking minors and in September 2020, she helped lead the prosecution of United Nations employee Karim Elkorany for attempting to cover up sexual assaults while working for the international body.
Currently, Pomerantz works with the SDNY’s Public Corruption Unit, which deals with bribery, corruption, embezzlement, and fraud. It often works closely with the FBI and other federal, state, and city agencies.
Before working for the US department of justice, Pomerantz was in private practise at the New York law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Pomerantz studied at Duke University and the University of Pennsylvania law school, where she in 2006 won a Fulbright scholarship to study the future of sex education in the Dominican Republic.
She is married to fellow lawyer Jonah Ari Peppiatt. According to a wedding announcement in the New York Times, the pair met at a “Festivus” party in 2010, a holiday celebration made famous in an episode of TV sitcom Seinfeld.