The Defense Opens
Dispatches from the Maxwell Trial
This will be a short dispatch for two reasons.
First, yesterday’s session in court lacked the tension of the previous two weeks, leaving some journalists, at least initially, to wonder: Is this all the defense has?
They opened with Cimberly Espinosa, who was Ghislaine Maxwell’s executive assistant from November of 1996 to 2002. Espinosa’s opinion of Maxwell was very different from the testimony we’d heard from the four accusers the prosecution presented previously.
Espinosa not only liked Maxwell, but she respected her. She said she had learned from Maxwell. “I highly respected Ghislaine,” Espinosa testified. “I kind of—no, not kind of. I looked up to her very much. And I actually learned a lot from her as far as administrative [sic] and being able to handle a lot of calls, a lot of duties. It was a very high-volume work—lots of work to do as far as arrangements to be made. I attribute my career right now as an executive assistant to what I learned at [sic] supporting Ghislaine.”
Espinosa talked about the huge responsibility of Maxwell’s job managing Epstein’s estates—which, from my perspective, has been one of the more surprising revelations about Maxwell in this trial. (We heard similar testimony from Epstein’s two pilots.)
Here’s what I find striking about that: While out and about at parties in New York, which is where I occasionally saw Maxwell in the late 1990s, she gave the impression that she was a jet-setting dilettante. Who knew that really she was showing up daily for work on Madison Avenue, sharing an office with two assistants and overseeing all of Epstein’s construction projects which included shipping sand and palm trees to his Caribbean island because he thought it needed more?
I, certainly, had no idea. I am still getting my head around it.
I am also still getting my head around why on earth she had anything to do with Epstein, period.
We heard a cringe-worthy anecdote that showed that Epstein’s deceitfulness behind Maxwell’s back. Espinosa explained that, while she was still Maxwell’s assistant, she had twice sent flowers from Epstein to the Norwegian heiress Celina Midelfart, without Maxwell knowing. Coupled with the story we heard in the trial’s first week—about how Epstein had had Juan Alessi, the former butler at Epstein’s Palm Beach estate, take down Maxwell’s photograph when he had other girlfriends staying—I can see why Maxwell’s good friends told me back in 2002 that Epstein had been an awful boyfriend and they couldn’t wait for her to dump him.
Further, according to Espinosa’s testimony, Maxwell worked just as hard for Epstein even when the couple had split up and Maxwell was dating other men. The only sign that Maxwell had lost any dedication was that she worked a few days from her home rather than from the office.
Ultimately, though, Espinosa testified that Maxwell did move on: to the billionaire Ted Waitt—who was, at least on cursory inspection, a far nicer, normal man. But, as I reported in Chasing Ghislaine, Maxwell was, ultimately, never able to outrun Epstein and his sick depravity and what had happened when she’d been around him.
Maxwell and Waitt split up around 2011—and, following press reports involving Prince Andrew and Virginia Roberts (and Maxwell and Epstein) and civil litigation and further federal investigations into Epstein, then Maxwell, we are now all in court for her trial.
The bulk of the day was focused on the testimony from “false memory” expert Professor Elizabeth Loftus, who had a resume that was 47 pages long, single-spaced (literally).
Elizabeth Loftus, PhD., testifies for the defense in a child abuse trial in Cambridge Massachusetts on February 3, 2005. || Jodi Hilton / Getty
Loftus was a compelling character, but I found her testimony about how memory can be manipulated extremely dull. Other journalists said they felt the same, and it occurs to me that perhaps because we spend so many hours comparing our memories to our notes and tape-recordings, we have an innate understanding of the failings—or lack thereof—of memory that other professionals may not.
The jurors, I noticed, were riveted by what Loftus had to say.
Even more riveting, however, was the cross examination of Loftus by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz, who delivered the tour de force performance of the prosecution to date. When she asked Loftus if she had made millions by marketing herself as an expert for the defense, a few jurors’ eyebrows noticeably lifted:
Pomerantz: I want to talk about your compensation. You are being paid or you will be paid for your work in this case, right?
Loftus: I'm being compensated for my time, yes.
Pomerantz: And as you sit here, you're billing for your services, right?
Loftus: I’m sorry, could you repeat that?
Pomerantz: Sure. As you sit here, you're billing for your services, right?
Loftus: Yes.
Pomerantz: And you're charging the defendant $600 an hour, right?
Loftus: Correct.
Pomerantz: And you said earlier that you've testified at over 300 trials, right?
Loftus: In 50 years, yes. …
Pomerantz: You've served as a paid expert for the defense many times, right?
Loftus: I have, yes.
Pomerantz: You served as a paid expert for some high-profile or famous defendants, right?
Loftus: I have.
Pomerantz: It's fair to say that over the years, criminal defendants have paid you millions of dollars for your services, right?
Today, the defense plans on wrapping.
They will bring the testimony of three women: “Eva, Michelle, and Kelly.” One guesses, from earlier testimony, that Michelle and Kelly are former employees. And…as for Eva? Some journalists are wondering if this is Eva Andersson-Dubin.
Dubin was Epstein’s girlfriend for eleven years in the 1980s. She was a Miss Sweden who became a physician and, later, founder of the Dubin Breast Center at Mount Sinai.
My sources say Epstein and Andersson broke up around the time he was first seen publicly with Maxwell, but they stayed close friends, and sources say he introduced her to her now-husband, Glenn Dubin, a billionaire. Epstein reportedly told the Russian model Kira Dikhtyar—who I interviewed for my discovery+ series, “Chasing Ghislaine”—that Eva was the template for what he could do for a woman: namely, introduce them to a billionaire husband.
When I first reported on Epstein in 2002, many sources told me it was their belief that Eva—not Maxwell—was the true love of his life. The Dubins’ eldest daughter was Epstein’s goddaughter and he told me there was no one more important to him in the world.
I noticed myself when I went to interview him that there were many more photos of Dubin around Epstein’s home than of Maxwell. I asked him about this. Here’s a transcript of our conversation from 2002:
VW: I was thinking ... well, there’s lots of pictures of Eva Dubin around the house ... you know, what ...what does Ghislaine feel about that sort of thing?
JE: There’s lots of pictures of lots of people.
There is still so much about the Maxwell/Epstein relationship that this at the heart of this trial that remains a mystery.
What seems less of a mystery, at this point, is that this trial is likely to end next week. Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday.
Stand by.
