By Matthew Russell Lee, Author on Patreon Song Ruling
BBC - Decrypt - LightRead - Radio - Podcast
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Dec 25 -- This second hiatus in the Maxwell trial had Kurt thinking back to when Epstein had been brought in, a year and a half ago.
It was a long Fourth of July weekend and the news had come that Epstein had been arrested at Teterboro airport and taken to the MCC; his mansion at 9 East 71 Street had been raid with a subpoena and photos, videos and at least one fake passport found and seized.
It was the last that interested Kurt the most. Epstein had an expired Austrian passport, listing Saudi Arabia as his address. The same Saudi Arabia that had murdered and dismembered inside its Istanbul consulate journalist Jamal Khashoggi, son of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi of Iran-contra fame.
Combined with the fact that the government had rented Epstein the Iranian consulate on the Upper East Side, there was something here. For Epstein's arraignment, Kurt was in the jury box as Judge Pittman took the not-guilty plea and referred it down to the assigned District Judge, Richard M. Berman, on the 17th floor.
When Judge Berman heard Epstein's argument to be released on bail, survivors Annie Farmer and Courtney Wild had spoken, as they had not been allowed to before then US Attorney in Florida Alex Acosta cut Epstein his non-prosecution deal in 2008. Judge Berman had said no, no release on bail.
Kurt had sources in the SDNY criminal defense bar, and not only Michael Randall Long he sometimes worked with. He was told that now the legal conference room in the MCC was given over to Epstein, to lounge around all day using his lawyers' laptops like Maxwell now seemed to use the cell phone of Leah Saffian, right in Judge Nathan's courtroom. Kurt wrote the story and others picked it up. Then came Epstein's first hospitalization, his removal from suicide watch, and his death.
It was still only August when Judge Berman held the wake, really a nolo prosequi proceeding to drop the indictment of the now dead Epstein. A much larger number of survivors came to testify, some on person include at least one now a pseudonymous witness in Maxwell's trial. Kurt was in the courtroom in 40 Foley Square, two floors down from the one in which Maxwell was now on trial.
Maxwell's argument was that Epstein's death had led to her indictment and arrest, that she was a scapegoat or a stand-in for the real malefactor in interest. But why not then cut her a cooperation deal, to go after the big-shots like the ex-Presidents of Colombia and of the United States who had flown to Little St. Jeff's?
Was such a deal at all possible, even at this late stage, or if there were a mistrial? Could the possibility of such a deal -- or cutting it off forever really -- explain the way this prosecution was being run? #MaximumMaxwell.
Note: On October 29, 2021 and again on November 12 Ghislaine Maxwell and the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York filed a flurry of motions in limine, heavily redacted; the Government argued that trial exhibits are not public and will be withheld. Inner City Press opposed and opposes the continued secrecy.
Inner City Press will cover the trial, and all the comes before and after it; #CourtCaseCast and song I, Song 2, Song 3, fifth song and now Nov 27 song
The underlying case is US v. Maxwell, 20-cr-330 (Nathan).
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