SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Dec 25 -- This second hiatus in
the Maxwell trial had Kurt thinking back to
when Epstein had been brought in, a year and
a half ago.
It was a long Fourth of
July weekend and the news had come that
Epstein had been arrested at Teterboro
airport and taken to the MCC; his mansion at
9 East 71 Street had been raided with a
subpoena and photos, videos and at least one
fake passport found and seized.
It
was the last of these that interested Kurt
the most. Epstein had an expired Austrian
passport, listing Saudi Arabia as his
address. The same Saudi Arabia that had
murdered and dismembered inside its
Istanbul consulate journalist Jamal
Khashoggi, nephew of arms dealer Adnan
Khashoggi of Iran-contra fame.
Combined with the
fact that the government had rented
Epstein the Iranian consulate on the Upper
East Side, there was something here. For
Epstein's arraignment, Kurt was in the
otherwise unused jury box with the rest of
what they called the in-house press as
Judge Pittman took the not-guilty plea and
referred it down to the assigned District
Judge, Richard M. Berman, on the 17th
floor.
When
Judge Berman heard Epstein's argument to
be released on bail, survivors Annie
Farmer and Courtney Wild had spoken, as
they had not been allowed to before then
US Attorney in Florida Alex Acosta had cut
Epstein his non-prosecution deal in 2008.
Judge Berman had said no, no release on
bail.
Kurt
had sources in the SDNY criminal defense
bar, and not only Michael Randall Long he
sometimes worked with. He was told that
now the legal conference room in the MCC
was given over to Epstein, to lounge
around all day using his lawyers' laptops
like Maxwell now seemed to use the cell
phone of Leah Saffian, right in Judge
Nathan's courtroom. Kurt wrote the story
and others picked it up. Then came
Epstein's first hospitalization, his
removal from suicide watch, and his death.
It
was still only August when Judge Berman
held the wake, really a nolo prosequi
proceeding to drop the indictment of the
now dead Epstein. A much larger number of
survivors came to testify, some on person
include at least one now a pseudonymous
witness in Maxwell's trial. Kurt was in
the courtroom in 40 Foley Square, two
floors down from the one in which Maxwell
was now on trial.
Maxwell's
argument was that Epstein's death had led
to her indictment and arrest, that she was
a scapegoat or a stand-in for the real
malefactor in interest. But why not then
cut her a cooperation deal, to go after
the big-shots like the ex-Presidents of
Colombia and of the United States who had
flown to Little St. Jeff's?
Was such a
deal at all possible, even at this late
stage, or if there were a mistrial? Could
the possibility of such a deal -- or
cutting it off forever really -- explain
the way this prosecution was being run?
#MaximumMaxwell.
And so it
continued. Click
here
for Patreon and more
(2d).
Note:
On October 29,
2021 and again on November 12
Ghislaine
Maxwell and
the US
Attorney's
Office for the
Southern
District of
New York filed
a flurry of
motions in
limine,
heavily
redacted; the
Government
argued that
trial exhibits
are not public
and will be
withheld.
Inner City
Press opposed
and opposes
the continued
secrecy.
Inner City Press
will cover the trial, and all
the comes before and after it;
#CourtCaseCast and song I,
Song
2, Song
3, fifth song
and now Nov
27 song
The underlying
case is US v. Maxwell,
20-cr-330 (Nathan).
***
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