The New York Attorney General reports Ghislaine Maxwell – and appeals to Prince Andrew to speak to the FBI.
After the suspected confidante of Jeffrey Epstein (1953-2019), Ghislaine Maxwell (58), was arrested in New Hampshire in the morning, Audrey Strauss, the state's top lawyer, read the indictment in the afternoon. The press conference was broadcast as a live stream on Facebook.
According to her, she is accused of "selecting, making friends with and attracting" several underage girls for Epstein's abuse between 1994 and 1997. In some cases, Maxwell himself participated in the abuse. Maxwell was brought before a judge on Thursday.
Will Prince Andrew help?
Maxwell had been in hiding since Epstein's death. The cases for which Maxwell was charged are, according to Strauss, those for which "after a year of tough investigations" there is sufficient evidence to charge them. Officially, she is accused of having organized the minors' trips to the Epstein houses, and in two cases she is accused of perjury. According to Strauss, these allegations are "the prequel" to the cases between 2002 and 2005, a prominent lawsuit by several victims, including the case of Virginia Giuffre (36), who accuses Prince Andrew (60) of sexual abuse.
That is probably why Strauss made an urgent appeal to Prince Andrew at the end of the press conference: "We would appreciate it if Prince Andrew came to talk to us. We would like his statement. (…) Our doors are opened further for him. "