Tuesday, November 30, 2021 at 7:57 AM
By LARRY NEUMEISTER and TOM HAYS Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — A prosecutor says Ghislaine Maxwell and the late Jeffrey Epstein were partners in crime in the sexual abuse of teenage girls. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz told the New York jury in opening statements Monday at Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial that she is accused of recruiting and grooming girls for the financier to abuse from 1994 to 2004. Defense lawyer Bobbi Sternheim countered in an opening statement that the 59-year-old British socialite was being made a scapegoat after Epstein killed himself two years ago. Maxwell used to date Epstein and has been jailed in Brooklyn since her arrest. She says she is innocent.