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Newly released transcripts show British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell repeatedly denied hiring anyone under the age of 18 for Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges that she recruited three girls, including one who was 14, and joined Epstein in the abuse in the 1990s.
She fought to keep the 2016 deposition transcripts under wraps but Manhattan US District judge Loretta A Preska ruled Maxwell’s testimony in a lawsuit related to Epstein’s sexual abuse activities should be released by 9am on Thursday.
The transcripts were among more than 2,000 pages of documents began emerging last year after an appeals court started to unseal documents from the since-settled defamation case brought in 2015 by Virginia Giuffre.
Ms Guiffre said Maxwell recruited her at age 17 to be sexually abused from 1999 to 2002.
She has also accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous wealthy and influential men, including Prince Andrew.
The Duke of York and the other men have denied her allegations.
In the transcripts, Maxwell repeatedly derided Ms Giuffre, saying: “She has lied repeatedly.” Maxwell added that she “never instructed Virginia to have sex with anybody, ever”.
When asked if she trained Ms Giuffre to recruit other women to perform sexual massages, Maxwell said: “It′s absurd and her entire story is one giant tissue of lies.”
The documents also reveal that Maxwell attempted to distance herself from and play down links between Epstein and former US president Bill Clinton, who had used the financier’s private plane.
When pressed on the relationship between Mr Clinton and Epstein, Maxwell said Ms Guiffre was “totally lying”.
“This is a subject of defamation about Virginia and the lies she has told and one of lies she told was that President Clinton was on the island where I was present,” said Maxwell.
“Absolutely 1,000 per cent that is a flat-out total fabrication and lie.”
Maxwell was asked: “You did fly on planes, Jeffrey Epstein’s planes with President Clinton, is that correct?”
To which she responded: “I have flown, yes.”
Ms Guiffre’s lawyers asked: “Would it be fair to say that President Clinton and Jeffrey are friends?”
“I wouldn’t be able to characterise it like that, no,” Maxwell said.
When pressed further Maxwell insisted: “I couldn’t categorise Jeffrey’s relationship,” Maxwell said.
Epstein was 66 when he killed himself in jail in Manhattan in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
Additional reporting by Associated Press.