NEW YORK (AP) — British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has appeared in court for a rare weekend hearing where attorneys made arguments about how the judge should instruct a jury on the law in Maxwell’s sex abuse trial. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan scheduled the hearing on Saturday in an otherwise closed courthouse with jurors absent. The scheduling was an effort to keep Maxwell’s trial on a fast track that will have her case reach a jury early next week. Closing arguments and Nathan’s instructions are set for Monday. The 59-year-old Maxwell has denied charges she groomed teenagers to have sexual encounters with financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Photo: In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell, left, sits at the defense table with defense attorney Jeffrey Pagliuca while listening to testimony in her sex abuse trial, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
