Ghislaine Maxwell Now Wants Judge to Delay Decision on Retrial
The legal battle over Ghislaine Maxwell’s guilty verdict took another turn Friday with her lawyers requesting a delay in a Manhattan federal judge’s ruling on whether the socialite will be granted a retrial over a juror’s failure to disclose a history of sexual abuse.
In late December, a jury convicted Maxwell of grooming and trafficking underage girls for perverted financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex ring. Days later, Maxwell’s attorneys requested a new trial because a juror referred to as Scotty David had given a flurry of media interviews which revealed he was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse but hadn’t disclosed the experience during jury selection. Scotty also told reporters that he used his experience to help sway fellow jurors who were skeptical of certain victims’ testimony.
Maxwell’s camp argues that Scotty, officially known as Juror 50, never would have made it to the panel had he filled out his juror questionnaire truthfully. (During a hearing last month, Scotty testified under oath that he didn’t intend to lie on the form; he said he “flew through” the questions because he was distracted by noise in the jury selection room.)