The woman accused of procuring underage women for deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein won’t have to submit to questioning as part of a civil suit alleging she participated in the sexual battery of a teen girl.
ABC News reported that Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorneys requested her questioning be postponed “because of an ongoing federal criminal investigation into Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators and because a victims’ compensation fund proposed by Epstein’s estate is said to be nearing final approval.”
“I’m permitting her not to respond to [written questions] and not to have her deposition,” Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman said in her ruling. “Not forever, but at least long enough to let us know whether the claims process is likely to go forward.”
The civil suit against Maxwell came from one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Annie Farmer, who said she was “recruited and groomed by Epstein and Maxwell in 1996, and that Maxwell sexually assaulted her at Epstein’s New Mexico ranch when Farmer was 16,” ABC reported.
“Annie was extremely distressed and afraid. She was a child in a massive ranch in New Mexico, away from her family in Arizona, and isolated from any source of help. She was alone with Epstein and Maxwell,” Farmer’s lawsuit said.
Farmer’s attorney, according to ABC, argued against the delay because it was uncertain how long the criminal investigation would take.
“We have no indication of any time frame with respect to … how long that investigation could go on,” said attorney Sigrid McCawley, who represents Farmer and four other women suing Epstein’s estate. “And to not be able to get discovery and ask Miss Maxwell questions … that puts us in handcuffs with respect to being able to establish our claims.”
Magistrate Freeman addressed the concerns by saying she had “no desire to have this drag out.” ABC reported that Freeman wanted an update on the investigation in mid-June.
Maxwell, according to the outlet, has not been seen in public in months.
Maxwell’s attorney wrote in a letter to court that the British socialite “absolutely denies that she participated in this or any other sexual abuse or trafficking or assault, and no court, judge or jury has ever determined that she has.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported in December, Maxwell was planning to give a TV interview to tell her side of the story. The interview never happened. It was reported in January that Maxwell apparently believed she could avoid prosecution by revealing “serious dirt” on powerful people. At the time, one of Maxwell’s friends told The Sun that the British socialite had so much dirt on rich and powerful people she thinks she can return to her party lifestyle after “the dust has settled.”
“The Brit socialite, accused of procuring underaged girls for billionaire paedophile Epstein, remains ‘totally convinced’ that she can stay in hiding and eventually clear her name,” the outlet reported.
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