Friday’s witnesses included Annie Farmer, the fourth and ultimate accuser to take the stand. She testified she was 16 years outdated when Maxwell massaged her bare chest at billionaire Jeffrey Epstein’s New Mexico ranch in 1996.
Maxwell faces six counts, together with intercourse trafficking of a minor, for allegations of conduct that allegedly occurred between 1994 and 2004.
The federal government alleges Maxwell facilitated and took half with Epstein within the alleged sexual abuse described by the 4 accusers.
Protection attorneys moved for an acquittal on the finish of the courtroom Friday, which is commonplace follow after the prosecution rests. Decide Alison Nathan denied the movement.
The protection is anticipated to begin its case subsequent Thursday. The trial is not going to sit Monday by means of Wednesday on account of a scheduling battle for the choose.
Protection attorneys stated their case will seemingly take two or three days and so they anticipate to relaxation on December 20.
Some protection witnesses wish to testify anonymously given they “may get plenty of undesirable consideration” testifying for Maxwell, legal professional Christian Everdell stated. The events will confer on that over the break.
Farmer’s allegations are linked to the fees of conspiracy to entice minors to journey to interact in unlawful intercourse acts, and conspiracy to move minors with intent to interact in prison sexual exercise.
Farmer, now 42, is recognized as “Minor Sufferer-2” within the indictment detailing the fees in opposition to Maxwell. It alleges that Farmer traveled to New Mexico in 1996 the place Epstein abused her at his ranch. Maxwell groomed Farmer, giving her an unsolicited therapeutic massage whereas she was topless and inspiring Farmer to therapeutic massage Epstein, in accordance with the indictment.
Prosecutors moreover allege, in a perjury case severed from this trial, that Maxwell denied ever giving Farmer a therapeutic massage when explicitly requested throughout a 2016 civil deposition.
‘I felt like type of frozen’
Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz informed Farmer to go searching, “Do you see anybody on this courtroom who has ever given you a therapeutic massage?”
“Sure,” Farmer stated, and described Maxwell seated on the protection desk.
Farmer testified that Maxwell gave her a therapeutic massage at Epstein’s New Mexico ranch in 1996, telling her she needed Farmer to expertise how good an expert therapeutic massage felt.
“She informed me to get undressed,” Farmer, 16 on the time, recalled.
In some unspecified time in the future as she lay on her again, Maxwell pulled the sheet down, exposing her bare breasts and rubbed her chest and higher breast, Farmer testified.
“As soon as she pulled down the sheet I felt like type of frozen,” she testified. “It did not make sense to me that that may occur. I simply needed so badly to get off the desk and have this therapeutic massage be executed.”
On her final day on the ranch Epstein bounded into her guestroom the place she nonetheless lay in mattress telling her he needed to “cuddle.”
“He climbed into mattress with me and type of laid behind me and reached his arms round me and like pressed his physique into me,” she stated.
Feeling uncomfortable, she made an excuse to get away from bed and went to the toilet, closing the door behind her.
Prosecutors allege a ‘pyramid scheme of abuse’
And on Tuesday, a girl who used solely her first title, Carolyn, testified that Maxwell as soon as touched her breasts, hips and butt and informed her she “had an important physique for Epstein and his mates.” She was 14 on the time, she stated.
Fourth accuser learn her diary entries
Farmer testified that she informed her mom, Janice Swain, in the summertime of 1996 that one thing occurred to her on the New Mexico ranch with out going into element. “I informed my mother I used to be not raped and I did not wish to speak about it,” she stated.
Swain was the final witness within the authorities’s case and informed the jury that she spoke on the cellphone with Epstein to plan Annie’s journeys to New York and New Mexico.
Swain testified that when the billionaire invited Farmer to go to the ranch he informed the mom it will be for a “retreat” with 20 to 25 different college students who Epstein would even be funding for enrichment journeys overseas later that 12 months.
Epstein informed Swain that “his spouse, Ghislaine” could be chaperoning the women on what she was informed was a co-ed retreat, she stated. However Farmer stated she was shocked when she was the one one there.
Farmer additionally stated Friday that she years in the past had confided in a boyfriend and spoke to legislation enforcement in 2006.
The boyfriend, David James Mulligan, testified Friday they began relationship within the fall of 1996.
He stated Farmer confided in him that Epstein touched her leg on the films in New York and spoke of the therapeutic massage in New Mexico. Mulligan recalled that she informed him she felt “fearful and awkward and helpless” in the course of the therapeutic massage.
Farmer stated she first met Epstein over the vacations in 1995 into 1996 by means of her older sister, who labored for him in New York. Epstein paid for her business flight there and tickets for the Farmer sisters to see “Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway, she testified. In some unspecified time in the future on that journey Epstein took the sisters to see the film “5 Monkeys,” she recalled.
Farmer learn parts of January 1996 diary entries by which she wrote about Epstein holding her hand and “caressing” her foot whereas her sister sat on the alternative facet of Epstein within the theater.
She testified that Epstein would cease touching her any time he spoke to her sister as if to cover it from her.
What gave the impression to be an internal battle unfolded within the journal entry. Farmer wrote that she felt “bizarre” about his conduct but it surely was in all probability “regular” and “high-quality.”
“I do know it feels like me attempting to justify him doing one thing bizarre but it surely is not,” 16-year-old Farmer wrote.
Annie Farmer additionally wrote that she did not inform her sister in regards to the incident as a result of her sister “worshiped” Epstein and she or he feared it will upset her or price her sister her job.
‘I imagined it will be completely different’ with Maxwell current
Protection legal professional Laura Menninger throughout cross examination repeatedly identified that Maxwell was not current on Farmer’s New York journey.
Annie Farmer recalled she wasn’t excited for the New Mexico journey in April 1996 due to the film incident with Epstein months earlier.
Nevertheless, understanding Maxwell would on the journey made her extra snug. “I imagined it will be completely different this time as a result of Maxwell was there,” she testified.
Maxwell purchased her magnificence cream and Epstein purchased her costly cowboy boots on a day all of them went buying, she stated.
In addition they went to see the film “Primal Concern” that day, the place Epstein once more caressed her in a extra “blatant” method, seemingly making no effort to cover it from Maxwell, she recalled.
Later that day Maxwell insisted she train Farmer tips on how to therapeutic massage Epstein’s naked toes, Farmer testified.
“She instructed me to you already know, pull again his massive toe, rub this a part of his foot, you already know, and so I did what she informed me,” Farmer stated in courtroom.
Epstein “groaned” with pleasure as she methodically adopted Maxwell’s lead massaging his toes, she stated.
Menninger requested Farmer a number of questions suggesting to Farmer that she “pieced collectively” the timeline round her reminiscence of the New Mexico journey by wanting up when “Primal Concern” was launched in theaters. Farmer acknowledged doing the analysis and stated she had already recalled it was the spring of 1996 however needed to be extra correct.
Farmer filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to Maxwell and Epstein in 2019 however later dropped the go well with as a situation to obtain $1.5 million for her declare with the Epstein Sufferer Compensation Program, she testified.
Menninger admitted Farmer’s black leather-based cowboy boots into proof and had her overview the footwear on the stand. She clarified with Farmer that she’d worn them to the purpose of sporting down the heels and scuffing the toes.
The protection legal professional additionally steered that Farmer overstated what she alleges occurred to her in her public statements and on her Epstein Sufferer Compensation Program software for private achieve.
The choose permitted the protection to overview Farmer’s sufferer fund software throughout cross examination. The declare says Farmer was “groped” in the course of the therapeutic massage by Maxwell.
Farmer responded on the stand, “Sure, I do not see that as considerably completely different — rubbed, groped, massaged.”
Farmer has spoken out publicly about Epstein and Maxwell for years. She spoke in open courtroom throughout each Epstein’s 2019 bail listening to and Maxwell’s bail listening to a 12 months later.
CNN’s Eric Levenson contributed to this report.
