Acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss and assistant FBI director Bill Sweeney led a press conference Thursday to outline the charges against Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who Sweeney says “slithered off” to New Hampshire recently.
Strauss confirmed Maxwell was arrested Thursday in New Hampshire and the charges focus on her actions from 1994 to 1997. She called Maxwell’s charges “the prequel” to the charges filed against Epstein in July 2019, as they focused on his actions from 2002 to 2005.
The acting US attorney described how Maxwell’s charges came as a result of the investigation into Epstein, who died by suicide awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center last August.
“Maxwell was among Epstein’s closest associates and helped him exploit girls who were as young as 14 years old. Maxwell played a critical role in helping Epstein to identify, befriend and groom minor victims for abuse,” she said of her office’s findings. “In some cases, Maxwell participated in the abuse herself. As alleged, Maxwell and Epstein had a method. Typically, they would befriend these young girls by asking them questions about their lives, pretending to take an interest in them.”
She alleged Maxwell presented herself as a trustworthy adult the girls could trust, then the two “worked together to entice these minor victims to travel to Epstein’s residences,” where the girls were assaulted. Some of the abuse, she said, took place in Maxwell’s London residence.
Sweeney said that authorities had been “discreetly” tracking Maxwell for some time: “We learned she slithered away to a gorgeous property in New Hampshire, continuing to live a life of leisure,” he said. “We moved when we were ready.”
Watch the press conference above.