Ghislaine Maxwell Trial: Day Three

The day begins with “Jane” back on the stand and the defense trying to impeach her.

December 1, 2021 — Today is Day Three in the trial of infamous socialite and alleged child sexual predator and trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell. For background on the case, Ghislaine Maxwell is alleged to have assisted disgraced “financier” and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and was his longtime companion.

Some Background Information

She is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, dubbed “Israel’s Super Spy” by authors Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon. Angelic Visions writes about Robert Maxwell, the Cold War and the Mossad:

I have become engrossed with the secret antics of the Cold War. Another character in this time frame, is Ian Robert Maxwell, born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch. He was a Flamboyant, larger than life character in Britain’s publishing world, as owner of the Daily Mirror.  He ate too much, did not take care of his health, and took all kinds of medications.  At 67 he was sickly.  His life and disappearance in November 1991, is right up there with “What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?” After his disappearance, what was discovered about Robert Maxwell was even more enlightening.

He was born in Czechoslovakia and escaped Nazi occupation during WWII, though his parents were not so lucky. They were peasant Jews that died at Auschwitz during the war.  Maxwell joined the British Army, and by 1945 he had earned the rank of Captain in the army. He ended up in Berlin as head of the foreign press office. He was well positioned to cut through red tape and make things happen.  He garnered attention after WWII by smuggling aircraft parts into Israel. This led to them having supremacy in the air and helping them win their independence in 1948.

That was the beginning of his rise to notoriety.  In the 1950’s he purchased Pergamon Press this began his meteoric rise as a publishing mogul in Great Britain. In the 1960’s he as he was elected to Parliament, then he was reelected a second time for the Labour Party in Buckingham. In 1984 he purchased the British Printing Corporation, Mirror Group Newspapers. A life right out of Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Maxwell often flew in from Oxford in his Helicopter. He also frequently sailed on his yacht the Lady Ghislaine. He was constantly suing someone and constantly in involved with some sort of controversy.

Maxwell purchased Mirror Group Publishing for $113 million dollars. This included the Daily Mirror.  Then he purchased Sinclair Research. As the 1980’s saw him acquiring companies and building his empire, he was doing this using pension funds from his own companies.  He was also getting into financial trouble cannibalizing his organizations, and the British government was taking note.

Bob Maxwell knew he was in irreversible trouble in his business affairs. His once great empire was collapsing around him, except for the still-profitable Mirror Group Newspapers. His American acquisitions were a crushing debt burden. He had devoured the entire pension funds of Maxwell Communications to try to ease that debt burden, and he mortgaged virtually all his wealth on a huge gamble with fate.

So when he was reported missing from his extravagant Yacht, Lady Ghislaine in November 5, 1991, there were many questions about what happened to Bob Maxwell. Did he have a heart attack and fall overboard?  Did he commit suicide to escape his crumbling empire?  When they pulled his body from the Atlantic Ocean around the Canary Islands more would be revealed about the life and death of Robert Maxwell.

The autopsy was performed by doctor Carlos Lopez de Lamela. Dr. Lamela said in a telephone interview that the Spanish autopsy team had found that Mr. Maxwell had a chronic lung disease and a heart ailment, including severe narrowing of the arteries. That would be listed as contributing to death along with drowning.

“We are saying that he probably died of ischemic heart disease,” said Dr. Lopez, describing a condition in which not enough oxygen-rich blood reaches the heart. Even though detailed studies performed in Madrid had found no proof of a heart attack. They had also produced no evidence of poison, alcohol or significant doses of medicines, he said. Also there was no significant amount of water in his lungs, so it appears he hit the water dead, the truth is this; The family identified the body, and the forensic team took it at face value. Though they believe his heart and lung issues contributed to his death, there were forensically no real indicators of a heart attack…. The forensic team could not rule out suicide, though his family said it would have been out of character.  So what killed Robert Maxwell?

Many believe it was the Mossad.  Over the years Maxwell had built up an impressive amount of powerful foreign contacts. He had many commercial contacts with Eastern Europe. He also passed communist information about the Soviets to the West. He had powerful ties to the Israeli government and at the end of his life was believed to be passing information to Israel.

Martin Dillion spent years researching Maxwell’s life and wrote the book, The Assassination of Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy. He and Gordon Thomas uncovered information that depicted Robert Maxwell as a spy for the Mossad the last 6 years of his life. In life many called him a ‘monster’ at times, he threatened many around him. He threatened his wife, his children, the staff and his paper, and most erroneously the Mossad.

There was evidence he tried to blackmail Israel for $400 million dollars to save his failing empire. His list of accomplishments that would enable him to do this was astounding:

  1. He had free access to Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Eastern Europe, and the Kremlin.
  2. He taught the crime families of Eastern Europe to funnel their wealth from drugs, arms smuggling and prostitution to banks in safe havens around the world.
  3. He passed on the secrets he learned to the Mossad in Israel, and they tolerated his excesses.
  4. He told his Mossad handlers who they should target and how. He also set himself up as ambassador to the Soviet Bloc.
  5. Mossad stole from US an important piece of software called the Promis, and Maxwell was to market it.

Mossad reconstructed the software and put in a device that allowed them to tract any use the buyer made. Mossad would tract all intelligence agencies from home base in Israel. Maxwell sold it to 42 countries. He also sold it to Los Alamos in New Mexico.  Know what was made there? The Atomic bomb.

Remember this is a man who was taken into the bosom of The KGB leader Kryuchkov. Kryuchkov wanted Maxwell to help overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev and put Russia back as a communist nation.  For that Maxwell’s $400 million debt would be erased. Israel would go to the US and persuade them to put Russia back to its communist roots during the Cold War.

The KGB chief wanted Maxwell to use the Lady Ghislaine, named after Maxwell’s daughter, as a meeting place between the Russian plotters, Mossad chiefs and Israel’s top politicians. Mossad set about planning Maxwell’s murder instead. He was taking Halcion and Zanax, that with a couple of drinks made him pliable. An electronic net was cast over the ship and security cameras shut off.  So there was no record and no communication with the outside world. It is rumored after he met with Mossad, they injected him with some drug behind the ear. It was over.

The flamboyant, luxury loving Robert Maxwell was no longer a threat to Israel, Mossad or any other country whose secrets he had been holding. He was dead, and his body was cast overboard. When he was discovered there was much speculation as to what killed him, but as I said much of the evidence did not neatly fit in the categories. Before Maxwell died, Ari Ben-Menashe (former employee of Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate) came forward to many US and Great Britain News Agency’s proclaiming Maxwell was Mossad.

His death caused panic with the banks he owed.  Maxwell had used millions of pounds from his own companies to shore up shares of the Mirror Group, and to save his companies from bankruptcy. Shearson Lehman and Goldman Sachs put back the money into the pension funds. His death is still a mystery, there are some who believe the body they fished out of the sea was not Maxwell’s and that he lives on somewhere out of the Mossad’s reach.

That was the father of Ghislaine Maxwell and he was the man who groomed Jeffrey Epstein. According to Maria Farmer, the sister of Annie Farmer who is only woman identified in the case against Ghislaine, Epstein was brought in to “protect” Maxwell after her father’s death. She claims that Ghislaine was the real operator, the one with the connections. Indeed, just look at the rest of her family and their ties to Silicon Valley and the Intelligence Community. Her sister has created software used by almost every single Intelligence agency in the U.S. Ghislaine’s sister Christine Maxwell set up the FBI’s “counterterrorism” database “Sentinel.” She was the CEO of Chiliad during this time.

That fact alone would be disturbing when you consider how the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ignored Maria Farmer when she first reported Jeffrey Epstein’s illicit operations back in 1996.

As Olear is hinting, it was Maxwell who was the real operator behind the scenes, information that is not being brought up by the DOJ or the FBI at her trial.

Whitney Webb published an incredible article about her other sister Isabel and her deep ties to Israeli intelligence and Silicon Valley Isabel was also a founding member of the World Economic Forum:

In 1992, Israel’s government created the Yozma Program at the urging of Chief Scientist of Israel’s Ministry of Industry and Trade – Yigal Erlich – as Erlich moved to leave that position. The Yozma Program aimed to “incentivize venture investment” by creating state-linked venture capital funds, which later spawned a myriad of Israeli hi-tech start ups with merging them with major, foreign technology companies. According to Erlich’s website, he had lobbied Israel’s government to launch Yozma because he had “identified a market failure and a huge need in Israel to establish for the first time a professionally-managed venture capital industry that will fund the exponential growth of high tech ventures coming out of Israel.” He then “convinced the Israeli government to allocate $100 million for his venture capital vision.” 

Erlich’s vision would also result in the fusion of Israel’s hi-tech sector, which he helped to create, with Israel’s intelligence apparatus, with numerous Israeli hi-tech conglomerates created with funding from the Yozma program and its successors doubling as tools of Israeli espionage. Notably, not long before Erlich convinced Israel to place $100 million into this program, Israeli intelligence, thanks largely to the work of infamous spymaster Rafi Eitan, had learned the benefits of placing backdoors for their intelligence services into commercial software through the theft and subversion of the PROMIS software. As noted in Part I of this series, Israel’s bugged version of PROMIS was largely marketed by Robert Maxwell.

After the Yozma program was established, the first venture capital fund it created was called Gemini Israel Ventures and Israel’s government chose a man named Ed Mlavksy to lead it. Mlavksy, at the time, was the Executive Director of the Israel-U.S. Bi-national Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD), where Erlich was Chairman of the Executive Committee. Mlavsky states that, while heading the BIRD foundation, “he was responsible for investments of $100 million in more than 300 joint projects between U.S. and Israeli high-tech companies.” BIRD’s connections to Gemini Israel Ventures and the Yozma Program in general are interesting, given that – just a few years prior – it had come under scrutiny for its role in the one of the worst spy cases in U.S. history – the Jonathan Pollard affair.

After BIRD’s Mlavsky was chosen to head Gemini Israel Ventures, one of the first companies the firm invested in was called CommTouch (now known as Cyren and majority owned by Warburg-Pincus). Founded in 1991 by Gideon Mantel, a former officer in a “special bomb-squad unit” for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), alongside Amir Lev and Nahum Sharfman, CommTouch was initially focused “on selling, maintaining and servicing stand-alone email client software products for mainframe and personal computers.” They specifically courted Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), meaning companies whose products are used as components in the products of another company that are then sold to end users. Integration of its products into those of major software and hardware developers would allow CommTouch’s products to be widely used but unseen.

AWired article discussing CommTouch noted as much, stating that CommTouch products are meant “to be as seamless and unnoticeable as the copper is to a phone caller.”

However, from their founding through early 1997, CommTouch struggled to stay afloat, unable to turn a profit and unable to secure any notable deals or to expand its company beyond 25 employees. Yet, thanks to Gemini Israel Ventures and “grants” from Israel’s government, which were used to finance the research and development of its products, CommTouch managed to stay afloat. As late as 2006, CommTouch noted in official documents that the company “has a history of losses and may never achieve profitability,” further noting that they hemorrhaged millions of dollars a year in net losses. Clearly, the decision by Gemini Israel Ventures and Israel’s government to continue to pour money into a decidedly unprofitable company for several years was motivated by something other than profits.

At some point in early 1997, CommTouch decided to enter the U.S. market and began seeking out a new President for the firm who had “local clout.” “We knew exactly what we were looking for,” Gideon Mantel later told Wired ofCommTouch’s search, “Someone who knows her way around the Valley.” They found their woman in the daughter of Israeli “superspy” and PROMIS salesman par excellence, Isabel Maxwell.

Mantel and CommTouch allegedly chose to court Isabel Maxwell for their company’s presidency through an unspecified placement company and were “attracted to her expertise and insight in Silicon Valley when it sought her out.” The Israeli outlet Globes states that Gideon Mantel “went to Isabel Maxwell as soon as he arrived in Silicon Valley and realized that in order to progress, an e-mail solutions company like CommTouch needed help from someone who knew the rules of the game.” Wired offers a similar portrayal, further adding that it was “Gideon Mantel [who] got Isabel Maxwell to take the job.”

Mantel told Jewish Weekly that while Maxwell’s pedigree, i.e. being Robert Maxwell’s daughter, “was very intriguing at the beginning… it wasn’t her name that made the decision for us.” However, Mantel, in separate reports, compares Isabel to her father on numerous occasions when praising her professional abilities. For example, he told Haaretz that Isabel “is not cowed by anyone, and she never gives in…. She got all that at home. They taught her to go after things and not give up.” Similarly, he told Wired that “Like her father, she is a fighter,” later adding that “She always charges. She has no fear. Of course, it is from her father. It is in her blood.” Given that Robert Maxwell is rarely posthumously remembered (in media anyway) as “a fighter” and “fearless,” it goes without saying that Mantel views him with a degree of reverence that he also associates with his daughter Isabel.

Isabel, notably, has herself stated on several occasions that her acceptance of Mantel’s offer to be CommTouch’s President was also informed by her father’s controversial ties to Israel. She told Haaretz that her reasons for accepting the CommTouch presidency was “from the heart” because it was “a chance to continue her father’s involvement in Israel,” leading her to reject other more lucrative job offers from actually established companies that she had received at the time. She similarly described her reasons for joining CommTouch toJewish Weeklyas “an affair of the heart,” adding that “it had to do with my father and my history.” The New York Times quoted her as saying that she had “considered other California-based Internet start-ups [in 1997], but felt a pull toward CommTouch and the Israeli connection.”

Isabel has some interesting views on her father, whom she describes as the “ultimate survivor,” and his involvement in Israel. She describes him as “highly complex,” adding that she doesn’t “have rose-coloured glasses about him,” but nonetheless says she is “proud” of his controversial legacy and that “if he were alive today that he would be proud of us too.” She said something similar to The Guardian in 2002, stating that “‘I’m sure [my father would] be thrilled to know what I’m doing now,’…. throwing back her head and laughing loudly.” In addition, when asked who the most influential person in her life had been, Isabel responded “My father was most influential in my life. He was a very accomplished man and achieved many of his goals during his life. I learned very much from him and have made many of his ways my own.”

Isabel told Haaretz around that same time that “When I was with him [her father], I felt power. Like being at the White House… Beyond that, it was a collective power, not my personal power. I was part of this unit,” apparently referring to her other siblings, Ghislaine and Christine among them, and suggesting that they were collectively extensions of their father’s power.

However, Isabel stands out from her other siblings, and even Ghislaine, in terms of a sense of loyalty to her father and to the state of Israel. According to Elizabeth Maxwell, Isabel’s mother, Isabel “is also loyal to the memory of her father, and to what Judaism represents in her life. All my children were brought up as Anglicans, but Isabel was very taken by the Jewish faith and the politics in Israel” compared to her other children, including Ghislaine. – Whiney Webb

I encourage everyone to read the entire article and the others she has published in her series on the Maxwell family business, which she states is espionage. Whitney also published an article detailing an interview conducted with former Israeli spy Ari Ben-Menashe in which he implicates Epstein as working for the Mossad. This is the important background information that must be understood prior to following the trial. You need to understand the global implications of the case, to also understand why we are not going to get the full truth coming out at trial. The case is too big, too massive and far too many influential people would be implicated. This is a scripted and controlled show trial.

Day Three of the Trial

A victim identified only as “Jane” is back on the stand and is under cross examination by Maxwell’s defense attorneys. Maria Farmer has stated she was not asked to testify at the trial because the government fears the truth coming out, despite the entire case being based on her 1996 report to the FBI. She says a cover-up is happening “big time.”

According to journalists following the case inside the courtroom, the defense lawyers have “scared” the witness “Jane” who is under cross examination today.

Inner City Press reports on the case and provides a transcript of the proceedings:

Judge Nathan: If what the defense bring in is impeachment [of the Witness] material, it’s not a Rule 16 issue.

AUSA Rohrbach: It should have been disclosed; it is about a collateral matter. [Note: these are the lawyers’ arguments before the jury comes in at 9:30]

AUSA: The witness couldn’t even recognize the photo, & it wasn’t impeachment of what she said on the stand.
Judge Nathan: What is the US’ understanding of when the witness lived in the address in the [FBI] 302?
AUSA Alison Moe: At 14 she was living in a pool house

Maxwell’s lawyer: In her application to Interlochen [music school] she listed the address that he showed her yesterday.
Maxwell’s lawyer Laura Menninger: She already said on the record that she lived in the same place after she met Epstein until she moved to NY

Judge Nathan: Is there anything we can discuss at [non public] sidebar, before the jury comes in?

AUSA: Some issues we can only do when they come up.
Judge Nathan: OK, then I’m going to step down for a few minutes.

Judge Nathan: The jury is ready.
AUSA: We do have one issue to raise at sidebar.
Judge Nathan: Let’s see if we can get to the break without. Before the defense shows the jury the [confidential] binder, raise it here.

Assistant US Attorney: We have an objection to tabloid articles from the Internet being introduced as evidence.
Judge Nathan: You have a general Internet objection?
AUSA: No, we’ll raise them one by one.
Judge Nathan: Let’s bring out the jury.

Maxwell’s lawyer Menninger: Did you turn 17 in your final year at Interlochen [art/music school]?
Pseudonymous witness “Jane” – No, I was 16.
Menninger: Jurors, pick up the smaller binder under your chairs and turn to J-3.

Menninger: And your application said you came from a “long and loving family,” right?

Jane: That’s what it says.
Menninger: Do you recognize the document?
Jane: I do not recognize it per se. But I see my signature.
Menninger: It’s your application to Interlochen

Menninger: When you spoke to your younger brother, you didn’t mention there was a woman, correct?
Jane: I don’t think so.
Menninger: And you told a news source that you were approached by Ghislaine, no mention of Ghislaine, correct?
Jane: I don’t remember that.

Menninger: When you got to Epstein’s house with your mother – your house was in West Palm Beach, right?
Jane: No, it was in Palm Beach –
Menninger: You didn’t cross any state lines, did you?
Jane: No I didn’t. There were only the 3 of us having tea.

Menninger: Have you ever spoken with your sisters about your boyfriends?

Jane: I didn’t have any boyfriends…
Assistant US Attorney: Can we have a brief sidebar about this?

Maxwell’s lawyer Menninger: Look at the last line in the top paragraph. You told the agents that Epstein would decide where everyone sat —
AUSA: Objection! She should only ask, Does it refresh your recollection.

Judge Nathan: Go ahead and ask.
Menninger: Does it refresh your recollection?
Jane: Yes. Menninger: And there was nothing sexual in the theater.
Jane: Right [Note: Jury may hear about New Mexico movie theater acts later in trial]

Menninger: Yesterday, it said it was shortly after the pool house that you had this incident with Epstein and Ghislaine, right?
AUSA: Objection as to form.
Judge Nathan: Specify what you’re talking about.
AUSA: Objection.
Menninger: This is foundational.

Menninger: You told the government you do not have a specific memory of your first time with Ghislaine —

AUSA: Objection!
Menninger: You have come up with the memory in the last two years?
Jane: I don’t believe I have come up with memory, no.

Jane: It is not typed up right on this form.
Maxwell’s lawyer Menninger: Another typo by the government.
AUSA: Objection!
Menninger: You told the government Ghislaine never used sex toys or a vibrator on you, correct?
Jane: Correct.

Menninger went on to ask Jane if Ghislaine ever saw her perform oral sex on Epstein (no), hand job (no), intercourse (no).
Note: We’re not going blow-by-blow for this portion.
Menninger: Look at 39-008 at Page 5, does this refresh your recollection?
Jane: No.

Menninger: You said Ghislaine never saw you perform oral sex on Epstein.
Jane: I don’t recall.
Menninger: Look at the document.
Judge Nathan: Let’s take a break.

This concluded the first part of today’s trial. The defense is attempting to make the witness appear unreliable and they are trying to question her motives for coming forward.

Inner City Press reports on the trial, coming back after break with witness “Jane” back on the stand under cross:

Maxwell’s lawyer Menninger: You testified yesterday your first has sex with Epstein in his pool house in Florida. But you told the government it was in New York.

Jane: Those are not my notes. I did not write that down and it was not recorded.

Menninger: You told them you only remembered one incident in NY when Ghislaine was present.
Jane: I don’t recall.
Menninger: Look at 3509-003. Hasn’t your story changed?
Jane: I didn’t understand the question.

Menninger: You told the government you flew to NY with Epstein & Ghislaine to see The Lion King.
Jane: I said that but I was incorrect in my timeline. I was 14.
Menninger: You were a student of theater and the arts at the time, correct?
AUSA: Objection as to form.

Judge Nathan called another break, saying that Jane needed a drink of water. Now she’s back on the stand.
Menninger: Let’s go to your conversation in Feb 2020, about the Lion King.
AUSA: No objection
Menninger: I know Ms. Moe would like to come and do this for me

AUSA Moe: I object to that.

Menninger: But the Lion King on Broadway didn’t start until you were 17 years old. Did the government or Mr. Glassman suggest to you that you might have meant the Lion King movie?
AUSA: Objection!

Menninger: So you recall going to the New Mexico range, a giant huge home, correct?
Jane: Like all the homes.
Menninger: And that Jeffrey Epstein’s brother went with you, correct?
Jane: I don’t recall.

Menninger: You weren’t asked to have sex with any of Epstein’s friends, were you? Jane: No.
Menninger: Did Epstein introduce you to people in the arts?
Jane: Not really.
Menninger: To the dean of Interlochen at a cocktail party?
Jane: I don’t recall.

Menninger: In 3509-001, you said you met Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, before the pool house incident.

Jane: I don’t recall.
Menninger: You said Epstein took you in a dark green car to Mar-A-Lago to meeting Donald Trump?
AUSA: Asked and answered and also misleading.

Menninger: You also had some recollections about flying on the private plane with Epstein, right?
Jane: Yes.
Menninger: You said you were asked your weight when you got on the plane, correct?
Jane: Yes.

Menninger: In 2019 before Epstein was arrested you were contacted by the government, right?
Jane: Yes.
Menninger: But you said you were not interested in getting involved.
Jane: Right.

Menninger: Then you hired Mr. Glassman, a personal injury lawyer with ads- AUSA: Objection.

Menninger: Did you see his ads, touting his big verdicts?
Jane: He’s a friend of a friend.
Menninger: Is this your contingent fee agreement?
Jane: Yes.

Menninger: You’ve talked to your ex-boyfriend Matt, right?
Jane: Right.
[Programming note: It seems “Matt” will be the next witness. Judge Nathan has said there is some issue with the jurors’ delivered lunches. So this may go a while.]

This up to date as of 12:45 pm eastern time, December 1, 2021.

Cross-examination continues:

Menninger: When you were 15 did you take a trip to Italy for a singing competition?
Jane: I may have. I don’t remember. I was 15.
Menninger: And at 16, you traveled for a sibling?
Jane: Maybe.

Menninger: And you were in a beauty pageant sponsored by Donald Trump?
Jane: Yes.
Menninger: Do you recall crying that Jeffrey Epstein only gave you $2000 for a dress?
Jane: No.
Menninger: You were on a reality TV show with Matt, right?
Jane: Yes.

Menninger: And there was tension and you cried?
Jane: Reality shows are not really reality.
Menninger: You claimed you were putting a roof over your family’s head?
Jane: I don’t know if I used those words.
Q: You told that to Matt.
A: They were living in my house.

Menninger: And you demanded money from Ghislaine Maxwell?

Jane: I have a lawyer.
Menninger: And you sought money from the Epstein Compensation Fund – look at Exhibit J-18, at 6. You were offered how much?
Jane: $5 million.

Judge Nathan: We’ll break for lunch, jurors. I hope all of your lunches are back there now.

The rules generally allow lawyers to ask these kinds of leading questions of adverse witnesses, but it doesn’t look good. It looks very petty and combative to speak to a victim and witness in this manner.

Matthew Russell of Inner City Press provides a mid-day update on the days proceedings.

Exhibits entered yesterday include photos of Sarah Kellen with Epstein and Maxwell.

After lunch, the trial has resumed with “Jane” still under cross by the defense, as Inner City Press reports:

Menninger: So you went to a specialized entertainment school, right?
Menninger: And since then you’ve played roles like cancer patient?
Jane: Yes.
Menninger: Prostitute?
Jane: No.
Menninger: You can cry on command?

Menninger: You’re accusations in this case include that you were 14 went you were abused, right?
Jane: Yes.
Menninger: But you first told the government you were 13, right?
Jane: I might have said 13 going on 14. It’s a small technicality.

[Note: on “prostitute,” Jane said “Not my favorite role.”]
Menninger: You talk about the Lion King and say you were 14 – but it only came out when you were 17, right? And you said you were 15 when you met Mike Wallace, at his 80th birthday party, right?

Jane: I don’t know how old I was.
Menninger: You don’t know when his birthday is? Look at J-33, does it refresh your recollection?
AUSA: Objection.
Judge Nathan: Sustained. No basis for refreshing.

Menninger: In your civil case you got interrogatories, do you know what those are? Jane: No.
Menninger: So your lawyer answered for you under your oath and you didn’t know? Jane: I don’t know.

Cross examination of Jane peters out, with a final exhibit admitted. Unclear how press and public will get it. Now re-direct.

AUSA: Did any of us prosecutors ever tell you what to say at this trial?
Jane: No.

AUSA: You were asked about notes of meetings with the US. Did you speak about everything all at once?
Jane: No. It was too difficult, emotionally, on every level.
AUSA: Then there were fewer of us in the room. Do you know why?
Jane: To make me more comfortable.

AUSA: Why did you speak to the tabloid reporter?
Jane: He basically blackmailed me. He said he would publish unredacted documents.
Judge Nathan: This is not for the truth of the matter asserted, but impact on the listener.

AUSA: Did you make an agreement with the reporter?
Jane: Yes. I’d talk about meeting Jeffrey Epstein, the reporter would keep my name out of it. I was working on a TV show.

AUSA: Do you know the difference between acting on television and testifying in court?
Jane: Yes. This is real. I am seeking closure. I have been running from this my entire life. I want to help in whatever way I can. And maybe find some healing.

[By the end, Jane is sobbing.]
AUSA: Do you have any financial interest in this trial?
Jane: No.
AUSA: Nothing further.
Judge Nathan: Jane, you may step down. And we’ll take a break. Jurors, your snacks are here.

“I wish I never received that money in the first place because of what happened,” she says. Her testimony concludes. Afternoon recess.

That concluded the morning testimony of “Jane”. The next witness called to testify is her “ex-boyfriend” going under the pseudonym of “Matt”.

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime reports:

The next witness, “Matt,” is also testifying under a pseudonym because he’s “Jane’s” ex-boyfriend; disclosing his name could identify her.

From her testimony: Q. While you were together, did you ever tell Matt that you’d been sexually abused by Maxwell and Epstein? A. Yes.

Judge Nathan says courtroom sketch artists should not precisely draw “Matt’s” features, either. (Sketches of “Jane” were obscured at the face.)

He’s called to the witness box, is sworn in, and explains the use of the pseudonym.

He tells the jury he’s been employed on and off as an actor on a TV show for the past 15 years.
Q: “How do you know Jane?”
A: “She’s my ex-girlfriend.”
She says they were together between 2006 to 2014, approximately — moving into together one year into the relationship.

AUSA: What did Jane tell you about her home life?
Maxwell’s lawyer: Objection.
Judge Nathan: Any foundation?
Maxwell’s lawyer: It’s hearsay. [Another non-public sidebar]

They return.
Judge Nathan: Ms. Moe, I’ll ask you to narrow the question.
AUSA Moe: Did Jane speak about her family finance when she grew up?
Matt: Yes. That when her father got sick, they went broke. The mother was working a small job. They were in the same bed.

Matt: They she told me she had a godfather. Later she told me it was Jeffrey Epstein. I said, He helped pay your bills? She said Yes.
AUSA: When did she tell you she met Epstein?
Maxwell’s lawyer: Objection.
Judge Nathan: Ask more specific questions.

AUSA Moe: Did Jane tell you what happened between her and Jeffrey Epstein? Matt: Not specifically.
AUSA Moe: Did she say why he gave her money?
Matt: She just said, It was not free.

AUSA Moe: Did they tell you about a women who was involved?
Matt: Yes.
AUSA: Did she give the woman’s name?
Matt: No.
AUSA: What was her demeanor like when Jane told you about Jeffrey Epstein? Matt: Shame.

AUSA: What did Jane tell her mother?
Matt: That the money was not free. That —
AUSA: Don’t say what the mother said, just what Jane said.
Matt: Jane told her mother that the money was not free and that it should not have been allowed.

AUSA Moe: Did you learn Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested.
Matt: Yes. On the news. I asked Jane, is that the woman you told me about? And she said Yes.
AUSA: No further questions.
Then Maxwell’s lawyer: No cross [!]
Next witness: Daniel Vesselsen of Interlochen

Thus concludes the testimony of “Matt” and we are now moving on to the next witness. Mr. Vesselsen is the Vice President of Interlochen Center for the Arts.

Witness is sworn in.

AUSA: Where is Interlochen, Michigan.
Vesselsen: Near Traverse City.
AUSA: How do you keep fundraising records?
Vesselsen: SalesForce.
AUSA: We offer GX 744 under seal. Now GX 741.
Vesselsen: A letter to Mr. Epstein about the scholarship lodge, how much he’d give

AUSA: What’s this?
Vesselsen: The lodge formerly known as the Jeffrey Epstein Scholarship Lodge. [Note: It was definitely time for a name change]

Now at 4:59 pm, cross examination starts.
Maxwell’s lawyer: You don’t have records for the individual and the individual’s siblings, correct?
Vesselsen: Correct.
Maxwell’s lawyer: Mr. Epstein certainly was a major donor, correct?
Vesselsen: Yes.

And with that, Vesselsen is done.
Judge Nathan: Sorry we’re 2 minutes late. Have a good night.
Clerk: All rise!

Proceedings have now adjourned for the day. Tomorrow will begin day four of the trial and we will be providing full coverage of the proceedings and will keep everyone updated.

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The day begins with “Jane” back on the stand and the defense trying to impeach her. December 1, 2021 — Today is Day Three in the trial of infamous socialite and alleged child sexual predator and trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell. For background on the case, Ghislaine Maxwell is alleged to have assisted disgraced “financier” and sex…

The day begins with “Jane” back on the stand and the defense trying to impeach her. December 1, 2021 — Today is Day Three in the trial of infamous socialite and alleged child sexual predator and trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell. For background on the case, Ghislaine Maxwell is alleged to have assisted disgraced “financier” and sex…