Ghislaine Maxwell ‘no monster’, she was not at a party when Jeffrey Epstein met Prince Andrew: friend
On the eve of her court appearance, claims emerge Jeffrey Epstein and Andrew met at a party Ghislaine Maxwell did not attend.
Friends of Ghislaine Maxwell have claimed that Jeffrey Epstein, her friend and a convicted paedophile, was introduced to the Duke of York by the wife of one of Britain’s richest men.
Ms Maxwell is trying to prevent the release of hundreds of pages of evidence as she prepares to appear in a New York court tomorrow (Tuesday) on charges of procuring girls as young as 14 on behalf of Epstein. She denies the charges.
The evidence relates to a civil defamation action brought against her by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Ms Giuffre claims that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew after Epstein and Ms Maxwell introduced her to him. The prince denies the claim.
Ms Maxwell, 58, is widely reported to have introduced the duke and Epstein. One of her friends, however, told The Mail on Sunday that the men met at a party hosted by Lynn Forester de Rothschild. “Ghislaine wasn’t at that party,” the friend said. “Lynn introduced Andrew to Epstein. It was all about the money with Andrew and Epstein.”
Prince Andrew is reported to have been a guest at a 68th birthday party hosted by Lady de Rothschild for her husband, Sir Evelyn, on his Martha’s Vineyard estate in August, 1999.
Flight logs, however, show that the duke flew with Epstein to his Caribbean island in February that year. In 2015, The Times reported that Ms Maxwell had moved to a home in New York owned by Lady de Rothschild after the death in 1991 of her father, Robert Maxwell, the disgraced newspaper mogul.
Epstein’s victims accuse Ms Maxwell of curating his “little black book” of contacts, which includes the details of the Rothschilds alongside politicians and leading figures in the worlds of art, films, music and fashion. There is no suggestion that any of them were aware of or involved in Epstein’s abuse.
Lady de Rothschild is reported to have met Prince Andrew through her husband’s connections with the royal family. The couple have an estimated fortune of $1,273 million.
The Rothschilds have a home in London and the historic Ascott House estate, near Wing in Buckinghamshire.
The Mail on Sunday reported that sources close to Ms Maxwell had come to her defence. A friend said that she was being portrayed as a “cartoon villain”. But the source added: “She is nothing like that. She is determined to prove her innocence despite the fact that she has been characterised as some sort of monster.”
Ms Maxwell insists that her romance with Epstein ended in 2001 but she continued to run his household. She claims that she did not see him in person after 2005 when she was photographed with him at a party.
The Sun on Sunday reported that she moved house up to 36 times in the past year before the FBI pinned her down at her 156-acre estate near Bradford, New Hampshire.
Prosecutors in New York say, however, that she moved only twice. They claim that she should not be granted bail because she has “three passports, large sums of money, extensive international connections and no reason to stay in the United States”.
They say that she made “intentional efforts to avoid detection, including moving locations at least twice and switching her email address and her primary phone number”.
Ms Maxwell’s lawyers argue in court papers that holding her in jail during the coronavirus pandemic puts her at risk of infection. Measures to slow the spread of the virus are impeding her ability to speak with her lawyers.
They say that she has “close relationships with her six siblings and her nephews and nieces”.
They add: “Ms Maxwell’s family and friends have remained committed to her because they do not believe the allegations against her, which do not match the person they have known for decades.”
The Times
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