
Published by
Reuters
Reuters
By Luc Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell’s defense is set to start making its case in the British socialite’s sex abuse trial on Thursday, after the jury heard testimony from four women who said she groomed them for abuse by Jeffrey Epstein when they were teenagers. Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of sex trafficking and other crimes. Her attorneys argue she is being scapegoated for the late financier Epstein’s alleged conduct because he is dead. Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on sex abuse charges. In its case, which i…