Attorney Ghislaine Maxwell once urged her to speak out to avoid what she called “reputational suicide” — even if billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein wanted her to remain silent, court documents released this week show.
Philip Barden, Maxwell’s legal representative in the United Kingdom, did not mince words to urge him to be more assertive in his own defense after they released a brief statement denying allegations he was involved in Epstein’s sex trafficking and labeled accuser Virginia Giuffre a liar.
“I can see why JE doesn’t want this because it might not sit well with him but he’s toast,” Barden wrote, referring to Epstein by his initials in a 2015 email to Maxwell.
“We can’t let you sit back and be conspirators,” Barden said.
Epstein Giuffre had made sensational allegations at the time against financiers in a federal court case filed against him by his victims – and Maxwell feared he would be attacked as well.
British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and financier Jeffrey Epstein lived the high life before he was exposed as a pedophile and committed suicide. US District Court for the South
Maxwell — who will eventually be sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2021 for aiding and abetting Epstein’s trafficking of young women and girls — was frantically pondering the best strategy to save himself as he sent somber messages about being linked to President Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and others.
“I don’t have the depth to understand defamation and other legal hazards and don’t want to end up in a lawsuit directed at me from anyone if I can help it,” Maxwell wrote to his attorney and publicist in January 2015. “I try to avoid litigation and not having to hire a lawyer for years because I was lost in a US legal nightmare.”
“You have to stand up and deny the allegations or be branded guilty by association and that may lead to another investigation and worse…I know what to do and that is to scream innocence,” Barden asserted.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, seen here at a 2019 press conference after Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide has been the most outspoken and ligigious of all Epstein’s alleged victims. AP
While Maxwell was trying to figure it out, he also emailed Epstein.
“What did you decide?” Epstein emailed him at the time.
“Ask the press to investigate whether Clinton has been there. Challenge the press,” he told her almost two weeks later.
Maxwell obviously decided not to say anything more but it was too late — Giuffre filed a defamation suit against him nine months later in September 2015.
Mugshot of Ghislaine Maxwell. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2021. Metropolitan Detention Center
The emails are part of papers filed in the lawsuit – which was long settled but made headlines again this week when hundreds of documents were made public, including numerous references to Prince Andrew, former President Bill Clinton and Stephen Hawking , among other main characters.
Maxwell was happy with the release of the documents, said his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, who spoke with him on Friday.
“What he’s really hoping for is that the more documents will be opened and released because the more that come out, the more it will show that he was wrongfully convicted,” Aidala said.
New documents released Friday as part of the declassification of Jeffrey Epstein’s records show an email exchange between Maxwell’s lawyer, Philip Barden, and Maxwell in which he advised her to speak up and save her reputation. SDNY
“What he’s really focused on and what we’re working on is his appeal. This indictment has nothing to do with that… One thing he’s been consistent about is the more paperwork, the more documents the court releases, the more satisfied he is that he’s on his way to overturning his conviction.”
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
