NEW YORK (AP) — The sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell is speeding to a conclusion. The jury began deliberations late Monday in Manhattan federal court. The jury went home after less than an hour. Earlier, a prosecutor said during closing arguments that the 59-year-old Maxwell is a dangerous predator who helped Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. A defense lawyer said Maxwell is an innocent woman wrongfully accused of crimes she did not commit. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail cell in August 2019 as he awaited a sex trafficking trial. Maxwell has been held without bail since she was arrested in July 2020.
Photo: Judge Alison Nathan, upper left, reads instructions to the jury, located in the jury box on the right, during Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking trial, Monday, Dec. 20, 2021, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)
