Ghislaine Won't Testify at Trial; Defense Attorney Questions Latest Accuser's Reliability After Revealing She Has Memory Problems

After calling the prosecution's accusations against her "unproven" and refusing to testify, Ghislaine Maxwell has put her sex-trafficking case on hold. Her decision came after her attorneys questioned nine witnesses over the course of two days.

Maxwell, 59, has denied recruiting teenage females for pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. On Monday, closing arguments will begin. If convicted of sex trafficking and perjury, the Briton faces up to 80 years in jail, BBC reported.

Maxwell declines to testify as defense rests case

Prosecutors have described Maxwell as a predator who preyed on young girls and then sold them to Epstein, her former boyfriend and business partner. They called 24 witnesses, including four accused, over the course of two weeks of testimony.

Her defenders, on the other hand, claimed that the accusers' evidence was tainted by "memory, manipulation, and money." They also claimed that the government was looking for a scapegoat to blame for Epstein's misdeeds. While awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking accusations, Epstein died in a prison cell in 2019. His death was determined to be a suicide.

A Maxwell family representative earlier stated that she would not testify because she was "extremely delicate" after being mistreated in custody. Meanwhile, Maxwell's defense team protested on Friday that they needed more time to gather witnesses.

Maxwell, 59, pleaded not guilty to allegations of sex trafficking resulting from her encounters with four teenagers between 1994 and 2004. Maxwell was intimately connected with and later worked for Epstein during that time, as per USA Today.

Although she did not testify in front of the jury, Maxwell appeared to be engaged in her defense during the trial's first three weeks, writing messages to her attorneys and hugging them as she entered and exited court each day. Attorney Sternheim's arm was placed around Maxwell's lower back as she proclaimed her desire not to testify.

Her defense called another of Jeffrey Epstein's former lovers to the stand earlier Friday: a former Miss Sweden, a New York City doctor, and a tabloid fixture who told the jury she trusted the financier with her young daughters and denied taking part in a group sexual encounter with one of the key accusers.

Eva Andersson-Dubin, 60, testified that she dated Epstein "on and off" from 1983 until the early 1990s, prior to his relationship with Maxwell. After their breakup, Epstein and Andersson-Dubin remained friends, and she married another wealthy investor, Glenn Dubin, in 1994, with whom she had three children.

Ghislaine Maxwell's defense attacks accusers' memories

As they began their defense in the British socialite's sex trafficking trial, Ghislaine Maxwell's attorneys recruited a high-profile false memory specialist who had worked with Harvey Weinstein and OJ Simpson.

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, who is paid $600 per hour, has been summoned to refute the claims of four women who claim Maxwell groomed them for sexual assault by pedophile tycoon Jeffrey Epstein.

Loftus said in a federal court in Manhattan that people may recall events that never happened with certainty. She testified to the jury how she and her colleagues had effectively implanted fake memories in the minds of research subjects.

Maxwell's lawyers claim that the memories of her four accusers have been tainted with time, with the alleged abuse occurring between 1994 and 2004. Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of sex trafficking as well as other crimes.

Per Daily Mail, her attorneys claim that she is being prosecuted in place of Epstein, who was discovered hung in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. The accusers did not mention Maxwell during early meetings with law enforcement, according to Maxwell's attorneys, and Loftus' testimony might help them claim that their recollections of Maxwell's participation were influenced by news stories or inquiries posed by FBI agents.