Ghislaine Maxwell will call 35 witnesses at her sex trafficking trial but she’s unlikely to testify

Ghislaine Maxwell is set to come out fighting at her sex trafficking trial, helped by a parade of 35 witnesses.

Court papers reveal the British socialite’s defence could outsize the prosecution case, which had 24 witnesses over two weeks.

They included the four women who accused the 59-year-old of abusing them as teenagers or of ‘serving them up’ to her paedophile friend Jeffrey Epstein.

Ahead of defence arguments starting on Thursday, Maxwell’s lawyers surprised observers by saying they expected to hear all 35 of the testimonies in just two or three days. 

Some of the witnesses are coming from abroad and three may not be willing to testify unless their identities are kept secret by the New York court.

Court papers reveal the British socialite’s defence could outsize the prosecution case, which had 24 witnesses over two weeks

Maxwell claims she is being made a scapegoat for Jeffrey Epstein, the late pedophile financier who she worked for for years. Epstein killed himself in 2019. Knox writes that while there is no doubt Maxwell’s fate wouldn’t be as bleak as it is now if Epstein were alive but that she is charged with her own crimes and the evidence is ‘damning’ 

The fast-paced nature of the defence case – with potentially more than ten witnesses squeezed into each court day – means Maxwell will almost certainly not give evidence. Pictured: Defence lawyer Bobbi Sternheim

The fast-paced nature of the defence case – with potentially more than ten witnesses squeezed into each court day – means Maxwell will almost certainly not give evidence.

If she did, she would have to face being cross-examined for days about her life of luxury with financier Epstein.

Instead, the jury is likely to hear from Maxwell’s acquaintances and potentially family.

Maxwell, who could face an 80-year prison sentence if found guilty of six sex trafficking charges, will begin the ‘fight for her life’ in New York when her lawyers launch her defence case

Her lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said in a letter to Judge Alison Nathan: ‘Three of the defence witnesses have requested to testify under their first names or under a pseudonym. The court’s ruling on this issue may impact the willingness of these witnesses to testify, thereby compromising Ms Maxwell’s right to present her defence.

‘We are still trying to make travel arrangements for defence witnesses, many of whom are coming from locations out of the district and abroad.’

The names of the defence witnesses have not been released to the public.

Annie Farmer, one of the four accusers in Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial took the stand on Friday. Farmer, who is the only accuser in the case to testify under her real name, described meeting the late pedophile in New York in 1996 when she was 16. She told how Epstein brought her to his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she met Maxwell

The prosecution rested its case on Friday, having accused Maxwell of being a dangerous sexual predator. She denies procuring schoolgirls to be abused by Epstein and herself. The alleged offences took place at his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, dubbed the ‘house of sin’, and at other properties. Miss Sternheim has told the jury that women have been taking the blame for the sins of men ‘since the age of Adam and Eve’. Maxwell denies six counts of sex trafficking children.

Her brother Ian Maxwell said at the weekend that she believes Epstein, who died in 2019 in his Manhattan prison cell while awaiting trial, was probably murdered.

He also said that his sister suspected that their late father, the billionaire publisher Robert Maxwell, was killed at sea. His body was recovered off the Canary Islands in 1991.

But Mr Maxwell told the Americano podcast: ‘I don’t buy a lot of the conspiracy theories at all.’

Chief medical examiner Dr Barbara Sampson ruled that the cause of Epstein’s death was suicide. He was 66.