The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell was thrown into some chaos on Thursday after the case was abruptly suspended, owing to an attorney who had fallen ill and required medical attention. Just after a morning break and less than an hour into testimony, Judge Alison Nathan told jurors to go home, adding “we have no reason to believe it is Covid related.”
The trial is expected to resume on Friday morning.
The scheduled witness for Thursday was Annie Farmer. Her testimony has been highly anticipated as she is the only sexual abuse accuser of Maxwell and Jeffry Epstein set to take the stand under her real name. She is now scheduled to appear on Friday, assuming the trial is able to resume.
The suspension comes just two days after a surprise announcement by the government that it would be resting its case far earlier than expected, and calling fewer witnesses. It had been thought the case could wrap as early as Thursday, prior to the suspension of the trial.
One witness was able to testify before the sudden stoppage.
Tracy Chapell is a paralegal with Fed Ex who verified a number of invoices for packages sent by Epstein in 2002. They appear to be the packages mentioned by Tuesday’s witness Carolyn — who testified under only her first name — one of which she claimed contained lingerie from Victoria’s Secret. She was 14 years old at the time.
Carolyn testified to years of underage sexual encounters with Epstein with Maxwell’s knowledge and claimed that Maxwell herself groped her in the massage room of Epstein’s Palm Beach estate.
The Fed Ex invoices did corroborate Carolyn’s memory of receiving packages from Epstein with a New York City return address, something she said she remembered because she was originally from Gotham. That was a win for the prosecution, as Carolyn’s credibility had been dinged on Tuesday by the defense, which presented several instances where her story has changed over the years.
But on cross-examination, the defense had Chapell walk through the invoices again to show that none of the packages for Carolyn, were actually sent by Maxwell. They went on to show that Maxwell was a frequent user of the Fed Ex account in question, but had no direct connection to the packages at issue.
When court restarts on Friday morning, if it does, Farmer is scheduled to finally testify. The court will then take a break Monday through Wednesday and pick up on Thursday when the Defense is expected to begin making its case.