A woman who was a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein has been arrested.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a 58-year-old British socialite, was arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire and is expected to appear in federal court Thursday. A law enforcement source confirmed with the Washington Examiner that Maxwell is in the custody of the Southern District of New York. News of her arrest was first reported by NBC New York.
Epstein, a registered sex offender, was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges for allegedly abusing girls as young as 14. The 66-year-old was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell in August, which the New York City medical examiner determined to be a suicide, raising questions due to his connections with important world figures.
The arrest warrant and 18-page grand jury indictment against Maxwell revealed that she has been charged with conspiracy to entice minors, enticement of a minor, conspiracy to transport minors, transportation of a minor, and perjury.
“The charges set forth herein stem from the role of Ghislaine Maxwell, the defendant, in the sexual exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein,” the Southern District of New York grand jury concluded. “In particular, from at least in or about 1994, up to and including in or about 1997, Maxwell assisted, facilitated, and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, and among other things, helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims known to Maxwell and Epstein to be under the age of 18.”
The grand jury added: “The victims were as young as 14 years old when they were groomed and abused by Maxwell and Epstein, both of whom knew that certain victims were in fact under the age of 18.”
The charging document said that “as a part and in furtherance of their scheme to abuse minor victims,” Maxwell and Epstein “enticed and cased minor victims to travel to Epstein’s residences in different states” — including Epstein’s New York City mansion, his Palm Beach estate, his New Mexico ranch, and Maxwell’s London apartment — which Maxwell “knew and intended would result in their grooming for and subjection to sexual abuse.” The unsealed indictment also said Maxwell “repeatedly lied when questioned about her conduct … under oath” in 2016 “in an effort to conceal her crimes.”
The FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan have long been investigating Maxwell as part of their investigation into the sex offender and his enablers.
The bureau focused on Maxwell and anyone else who may have facilitated Epstein in his alleged scheme to exploit underage girls. Epstein was accused of trafficking and sexually exploiting dozens of underage girls over the years, and Maxwell has been accused of helping groom some of Epstein’s victims. Maxwell has denied these claims.
The whereabouts of Maxwell, 58, had been largely a mystery since Epstein’s death nearly a year ago. The youngest daughter of British publisher and fraudster Robert Maxwell, she moved to New York after her father’s death in 1991 and became Epstein’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, eventually becoming his alleged right-hand woman.
Prosecutors described Epstein’s yearslong efforts to “entice and recruit minor girls to engage in sex acts with him” and to build a “vast network of underage victims” when they arrested him in July 2019. Epstein’s victims have continued to fight for accountability following his death while under arrest, and Epstein’s high-profile friendships, especially with Prince Andrew, former President Bill Clinton, President Trump, and others, have come under increased scrutiny.
As Epstein helped her move through the New York City social scene, Maxwell successfully insinuated herself with British royalty and brought Epstein along for the ride, helping Epstein become friends with the Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth II’s second son.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 36, alleges that Epstein and Andrew abused her when she was underage, accusing the prince of raping her at Maxwell’s home in London and Epstein’s homes in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands when she was 17 years old. Maxwell is alleged to have helped Epstein exploit Giuffre and numerous others over the years.
Andrew, 60, claimed he has no memory of meeting Giuffre and denied having sex with her, attempting to cast doubt on the veracity of a smiling picture of himself with his arm wrapped around Giuffre with Maxwell in the background.
British newspapers reported in 2000 and 2001 that Maxwell and Andrew had become great friends and may have been romantically involved. The two met through Andrew’s ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, whom flight logs show Epstein knew and visited in the Bahamas as early as 1998.
The Duke of York invited Epstein and Maxwell to royal residences such as Windsor Castle, visited Epstein’s private island, and stayed at his homes many times over the years, including in 2010 — after Epstein’s prior sex offender conviction.
Attorney General William Barr had warned that the investigation into Epstein’s alleged international sex trafficking conspiracy would continue and any of his co-conspirators “should not rest easy.”
