Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite accused of acting as a madame for late billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, refused to answer prosecutors’ questions about whether Epstein sexually abused girls and slammed one woman who filed a claim against him as a liar, according to court documents unsealed Thursday.
In a 2016 deposition in connection to a defamation lawsuit Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of sexual abuse, brought against Ms. Maxwell, she stonewalled questions by Ms. Giuffre’s attorneys.
When asked whether Epstein sexually abused minors, Ms. Maxwell slammed Ms. Giuffre as “an absolute total liar,” then refused to answer the question.
“My only personal knowledge concerns Virginia and everything Virginia has said is an absolute lie, which is why we are in this room,” said Ms. Maxwell, a longtime Epstein associate.
“If you are asking me to testify about things I have no knowledge of other than the police report that you showed me, I am not in a position to make a statement based on that because you are asking me to speculate and I cannot speculate,” she continued.
Lawyers for Ms. Giuffre continued to press Ms. Maxwell on whether she believed Epstein abused girls. But attorneys for Ms. Maxwell repeatedly objected, insisting that she had answered their questions.
Ms. Maxwell, who is awaiting trial on charges of recruiting young girls to be abused by Epstein, remained defiant but because of the objections never directly answered that question.
“I can only testify to what [Ms. Giuffre] accused and you guys put in the press for salacious purposes — whatever terrible, inappropriate, unethical and terrible reasons you chose to do that about me — and I can testify those are all lies,” she responded.
Later in the deposition, Ms. Maxwell admitted that Ms. Giuffre, who at that time went by her maiden name of Roberts, worked for Epstein as a masseuse at age 17. However, she evaded questions on whether she “brought” Ms. Giuffre to Epstein’s house.
“Virginia Roberts held herself out as a masseuse and invited herself to come and give a massage,” Ms. Maxwell said, adding that Ms. Giuffre’s mother drove her to the house.
“She was a masseuse and in the form and as my job, I was to have people who he wanted for various things including massage. She came as a masseuse,” Ms. Maxwell continued.
Ms. Maxwell was also pressed about Epstein’s relationship with President Bill Clinton, who had traveled aboard the billionaire financier’s private plane to his private island.
Although Ms. Maxwell acknowledged that she did fly on a plane with Epstein and Mr. Clinton, she downplayed links between the two. She said she couldn’t recall if they were friendly with each other and wouldn’t characterize their relationship as “friends.”
Some salacious questions emerged in the deposition, including a lawyer asking Ms. Maxwell whether she kept a laundry basket filled with sex toys at Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, Florida. After several objections from her lawyer, Ms. Maxwell didn’t answer the question.
Ms. Maxwell said it was possible she took pictures of people who were “somehow semi or had some clothing or no clothes on,” but insisted the pictures were appropriate.
“The types of — first, I took very few and they were always by request, this was a picture you could put on your — gift to your parent or to your grandparents to put on their mantelpiece,” Ms. Maxwell said. “It would be a very benign sort of attractive picture where you wouldn’t see anything.”
Most of the 465-page deposition focused on Ms. Giuffre’s claims. Ms. Maxwell repeatedly assailed the woman throughout her testimony.
Ms. Maxwell described Ms. Giuffre as “an absolute total liar,” saying she lied about multiple things and the sex abuse claims “are just one disgusting thing she added.”
An attorney for Ms. Giuffre called the deposition’s release “a welcome step.”
“The public should know today’s unsealing is only a small part of the total evidence,” attorney David Boies said. “As the evidence comes out, it will be clear why Ms. Maxwell and others who enabled Jeffrey Epstein are fighting so hard to keep it concealed. As our client Virginia Giuffre bravely asserts, they did not act alone.”
The two-day deposition was ordered to be unsealed by a federal judge earlier this week.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled Tuesday that the public had a right to access the deposition transcript.
Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers had fought to keep the deposition private, arguing it contained “intimate” details about her life and would interfere with her ability to receive a fair trial.
Federal authorities arrested Ms. Maxwell in July, accusing her of recruiting girls to be sex trafficked by Epstein. She has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.
Epstein died last year in a New York detention center after being charged with trafficking. His death was ruled a suicide, a conclusion that has been met with public skepticism.
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