Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer has hit out at alleged victim Annie Farmer and accused her of being motivated by money, days after she was denied bail for a second time.
The legal team working for Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam slammed Farmer in new court filings in a civil suit against Maxwell and Epstein’s estate, ABC News reports.
Maxwell’s attorneys have alleged that accepting a confidential settlement in October from Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program indicated Farmer has a financial motivation to make ‘false assertions’ about Maxwell.
Maxwell’s lawyer Laura Menninger wrote in a letter to the court earlier this week: ‘The fact that [Farmer] seeks money from the estate and from Ms. Maxwell, in the millions of dollars, at the same time she is a government witness in an upcoming criminal trial on the same topic is reason enough to suspect that her newly asserted memories of abuse – without corroboration – are not based on the truth or a desire for ‘justice’ so much as her desire for cash.
‘The motive for fabrication could not be clearer.’
It comes after Farmer filed a passionate letter in which she pleaded with a judge not to grant Maxwell bail.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s (right) lawyer has hit out at alleged victim Annie Farmer (left) and accused her of being motivated by money, days after she was denied bail for a second time
Farmer claims Maxwell and Epstein sexually assaulted her aged 16 at the disgraced financier’s New Mexico ranch (pictured), and is seeking damages from Maxwell
In accepting the offer from the compensation program, Farmer had to drop litigation against Epstein’s estate and Maxwell’s lawyers have protested the dismissal.
They say that the amount Farmer received should be disclosed, something they doubled down on in Wednesday’s letter.
It read: ‘The amount of money [Farmer] obtains from the Epstein program is very much a matter of public interest and will go to the very core of plaintiff’s credibility during the upcoming criminal trial.’
One of Farmer’s lawyers said Maxwell’s legal team’s letter was ‘vicious’ and ‘victim-blaming’, according to ABC News.
Sigrid McCawley responded to the letter on Thursday, writing: ‘Ms. Farmer will not respond to Maxwell’s meritless challenges to the merits of her case, to her credibility, or to her entirely appropriate participation in Maxwell’s prosecution.
‘Ms. Farmer simply states that she stands by the allegations in her [lawsuit] and any statements she made in related proceedings, and she intends to testify truthfully if called in any future proceedings.’
Farmer claims Maxwell and Epstein sexually assaulted her aged 16 at the disgraced financier’s New Mexico ranch, and is seeking damages. She filed the civil suit in November 2019.
Maxwell’s attorneys have alleged that accepting a confidential settlement in October from Epstein Victims’ Compensation Program indicated Farmer has a financial motivation to make ‘false assertions’ about Maxwell. Pictured: Farmer as a teen
Maxwell is accused of procuring girls as young as 14 for Epstein between 1994 and 1997
It comes after Maxwell was denied bail for a second time on Monday when a judge ruled that she remained a ‘flight risk’.
Judge Alison Nathan said that nothing submitted to the federal court in New York had changed her original decision.
Judge Nathan was unmoved by the $28.5 million bail package that Maxwell and her husband Scott Borgerson offered to the court.
She ruled that ‘no conditions of release can reasonably assure the Defendant’s appearance at future proceedings’.
The ruling means that Maxwell will remain in the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York until at least July next year when her trial is due to take place.
The women that Maxwell allegedly procured for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse had urged the judge to not allow for her release from prison before trial.
‘In light of that strong incentive to flee, all three of the victims listed in the Indictment have asked the Government to convey to the Court that they continue to seek the defendant’s detention,’ the documents state.
‘Additionally, pursuant to the Crime Victims’ Rights Act, one of the victims has provided a written statement urging the Court to deny bail, which is attached as Exhibit A hereto. That unanimous view of the victims reflects three related reasons that this factor weighs so heavily in favor of detention.’
Farmer wrote in a letter to the judge: ‘I write this not only on behalf of myself, but all of the other girls and young women who were victimized by Maxwell.
Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing where she was denied bail in July
‘Ghislaine Maxwell sexually abused me as a child and the government has the responsibility to make sure that she stands trial for her crimes.
‘I do not believe that will happen or that any of the women she exploited will see justice if she is released on bail. She has lived a life of privilege, abusing her position of power to live beyond the rules. Fleeing the country in order to escape once more would fit with her long history of anti-social behavior.’
She goes on to call Maxwell a ‘psychopath’ and says that she has a ‘disregard for and violation of the rights of other’.
Maxwell is accused of procuring girls as young as 14 for Epstein between 1994 and 1997.
She is also accused of perjuring herself in a separate civil case and denies all the allegations.
If convicted she faces up to 35 years in jail.