Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to six federal counts, including sex trafficking of minors, enticing a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and three related counts of conspiracy.
If convicted on all six counts, she faces up to 70 years in prison.
“Maxwell and Epstein were a wealthy couple who used their privilege to prey on kids from struggling families,” prosecutor Alison Moe said Monday.
“The way that they selected these girls tells you that they were targeting vulnerable kids. It is not an accident that Jane and Kate and Annie and Carolyn all came from single-mother households.”
The prosecutor said Maxwell knew Epstein’s preference for underage girls and helped satisfy that need.
“When you’re with someone for 11 years, you know what they like. Epstein liked underaged girls. He liked to touch underaged girls. Maxwell knew it. Make no mistake, Maxwell was crucial to the whole scheme. Epstein could not have done this alone,” Moe said.
Maxwell normalized physical touch and sexuality to the alleged victims she groomed for Epstein, the prosecution argued.
“A single middle-aged man who invites a teenage girl to visit his ranch, to come to his house, to fly to New York, is creepy,” Moe told jurors.
“But when that man is accompanied by a posh, smiling, respectable, age-appropriate woman, that’s when everything starts to seem legitimate. And when that woman encourages those girls to massage that man, when she acts like it’s totally normal for the man to touch those girls. It lures them into a trap. It allows the man to silence the alarm bells.”
Jurors again saw pages from Epstein and Maxwell’s “little black book with their victims’ names in it” recovered from Jeffrey Epstein’s home.
One page titled “Massages Florida” had notes “Mom,” “dad,” and “parents” next to some females’ names.
“When you contact a professional masseuse you don’t need to call her mom or dad,” Moe said.
Maxwell’s defense team is expected to make its closing argument Monday afternoon.
‘Pyramid scheme of abuse’
Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz told jurors that in the 1990s, Maxwell would procure girls for Epstein for sexual abuse via the “ruse” of a massage.
“Their relevance is self-apparent, given the contents of the photographs,” prosecutor Alison Moe said. “The relationship between Maxwell and Epstein is central to this case.”
Defense rested Friday
Attorneys called to the stand Eva Andersson-Dubin, who testified she dated Epstein on and off from 1983 through about 1991. She confirmed she and her now-husband, hedge fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, remained friends with Epstein through the 2000s.
One of the accusers, referred to as “Jane,” had earlier testified she recalled a woman named Eva had joined group sexualized massages with Epstein and Maxwell.
In response to questioning by the defense, Andersson-Dubin said she had never participated in group sexualized massages with “Jane.”
“Absolutely not,” Andersson-Dubin testified Friday.
A prosecutor clarified on cross-examination that Eva Andersson-Dubin is not necessarily the only Eva to have ever interacted with Epstein, suggesting “Jane” could have been referring to someone else.
On Thursday, as part of the defense’s effort to undermine the accusers’ testimony, a psychologist and professor at the University of California Irvine testified about false memories.
Dr. Elizabeth Loftus said people can be exposed to misinformation about an event after the fact and incorporate it into their memory, making it inaccurate.
“Even traumatic experiences can be subjected to post-event suggestion that can exaggerate, distort or change the memory,” Loftus said.
CNN’s Holly Yan, Dakin Andone, Eric Levenson and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.