The sex-trafficking trial of Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, ended with a guilty verdict, but that hasn’t stopped the flow of false news that has swirled around the case.
FILE — In this June 25, 2013 file photo, Ghislaine Maxwell, founder of the TerraMar Project, attends a press conference on the Issue of Oceans in Sustainable Development Goals, at United Nations headquarters. Despite his suicide, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein will still be put on trial in a sense in the coming weeks by a proxy: his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. The 59-year-old Maxwell is to go before a federal jury in Manhattan later this month on charges she groomed underage victims to have unwanted sex with Epstein. (United Nations Photo/Rick Bajornas via AP)
On Thursday, posts emerged falsely claiming that trial documents were sealed to protect Epstein — who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex crimes — and his influential friends. At the same time, previously debunked claims reemerged on social media, including assertions that there was no media coverage of the high-profile trial.
Maxwell was found guilty on five of six counts at the conclusion of the monthlong trial where she was accused of helping Epstein sexually exploit teenage girls.
Here are some of the claims that spread online, and the facts you need to know about them:
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CLAIM: The judge in the Maxwell case ordered details of Epstein’s network sealed after the jury found Maxwell guilty.
THE FACTS: Posts online are claiming that U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan ordered details of Epstein’s network sealed and that prosecutors made a deal to protect Maxwell’s contacts. But that doesn’t track with what actually happened.
Details of Epstein’s network came out at trial in numerous ways, through multiple witnesses and exhibits, including flight logs and bank records. And almost nothing was sealed. Last June, Nathan even ruled that two 2016 depositions from a civil case involving Maxwell could be used in her criminal trial. And troves of additional materials detailing what went on at homes where Maxwell and Epstein resided have been unsealed in the last two years after federal appeals judges and a Manhattan judge agreed that once-sealed records in a civil case against Maxwell should be released publicly.
Almost every exhibit in the Maxwell trial was released publicly, including pictures of Epstein and Maxwell together. However, the judge did find at the outset of the trial that only certain pages from Maxwell’s address book identifying victims with the word “massage” next to them could be marked into evidence.
