Ghislaine Maxwell loses bid to tell jury about Jeffrey Epstein’s sweetheart plea deal

NEW YORK — The jury that will decide jailed British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s fate won’t hear about the sweetheart plea deal that helped Jeffrey Epstein avoid justice for more than a decade, a Manhattan judge ruled Monday.

Maxwell’s lawyers wanted to question FBI agents at her upcoming trial about the criminal probes leading up to Epstein’s 2007 nonprosecution agreement, which allowed him to cop to state prostitution charges and serve just 13 months in county jail.

Maxwell’s legal team argued that the government’s failure to charge her 14 years ago shows she’s innocent. Maxwell says prosecutors substituted her for Epstein after being embarrassed by the sex offender’s suicide behind bars in August 2019 while awaiting trial for underage sex trafficking.

Manhattan Federal Judge Alison Nathan disagreed and said testimony about the circumstances of Epstein’s plea deal would lead to “trials within trials.”

Maxwell’s lawyers said the Miami Herald investigation that exposed Epstein’s perverted lifestyle and statements made by former Attorney General William Barr would also prove to the jury that Maxwell is a scapegoat.

Nathan said those lines of inquiry are also off the table.

“The government is not on trial,” the judge said.

The judge shot down a number of other legal efforts by Maxwell. Nathan ruled that prosecutors could refer to her and Epstein’s alleged victims as “victims” or “minor victims” in court.

“Precluding the term ‘victim’ is both unnecessary and impractical,” said Nathan.

The judge also sided with the feds by allowing witnesses who will testify about alleged sexual abuse to remain anonymous. Maxwell’s legal team had argued that protecting the victims’ identities would be “unworkable and unconstitutional.” The jury will know the women’s identities, but they will be referred to by pseudonyms in court.

Maxwell, 59, has been held in federal lockup at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since her July 2020 arrest. Starting Thursday, the court is expected to summon up to 600 New Yorkers for jury selection for the trial starting Nov. 29. It is expected to last six weeks.

The daughter of the late, disgraced publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges that she groomed teenage girls for Epstein’s sexual abuse for more than a decade, and that she lied under oath about her perverted lifestyle.

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