Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested by the FBI Thursday morning in New Hampshire on charges of sexually abusing minors.
The British socialite was Epstein’s confidante and was arrested on charges that she conspired with the financier to sexually abuse minors, recruiting girls as young as 14. She is expected to be indicted later today.
The indictment, reviewed by TheWrap, cited 1994 to 1997 as the years when she “facilitated and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of minor girls by, 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 indictment reads, “In some instances, Maxwell was present for and participated in the sexual abuse of minor victims.”
Maxwell was arrested in Bedford, New Hampshire around 8:30 a.m. and is expected to appear in a federal court later today to face a six-count indictment. At a news conference on Thursday, Assistant FBI Director Bill 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.”
In August 2019, a federal appeals court unsealed documents from a 2015 defamation case filed against Maxwell by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accused Maxwell of recruiting her as a minor to have sex with Epstein.
The case was originally settled for an undisclosed amount, which the Miami Herald reported to be “millions.” Several of Epstein’s other accusers have also named Maxwell as Epstein’s accomplice, but Maxwell has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
In the unsealed documents, Giuffre also named several prominent men she says Epstein or Maxwell ordered her to have sex with. The list includes Prince Andrew and the lawyer Alan Dershowitz — both of whom Giuffre has named before — as well as former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson; former Maine Sen. George Mitchell; MC2 modeling agency owner Jean-Luc Brunel; financier Glenn Dubin; and MIT scientist Marvin Minsky, who died in 2016.
Epstein died by suicide in a federal detention center in New York while awaiting trial on the trafficking charges last year.