More than a hundred women have said they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein, but only four of them were called by prosecutors to testify in the sex-trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, his alleged right-hand woman.
It’s a decision that lawyers who have represented some of those other women question.
“They had a mountain of evidence that they could have brought,” said Adam Horowitz, who previously represented several Epstein victims. The prosecution “had a very difficult burden and didn’t seem to put on as much evidence forward as I thought they would have.”
“I imagine they decided to put forward a very focused case, a very simple case,” he said. “If they were to bring in too many victim witnesses, it might give the defense counsel too much ammunition” to confuse and complicate the stories of victim witnesses.
The defense “wants us to believe, without proof, that civil lawyers manipulated the victims’ memories, or that victims’ failure to go after Maxwell years ago means they are lying now,” Lisa Bloom said. “We don’t believe the jury will buy these lies and myths.”
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?