One of the highest-profile human trafficking cases ever charged in the United States is underway in federal court in New York. Ghislaine Maxwell, an Oxford graduate and the youngest child of the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, stands accused of six counts of human trafficking and two counts of perjury. Her alleged co-conspirator Jeffrey Epstein died in his jail cell after committing suicide in 2019 following his arrest by the FBI.
Human trafficking is a $150 billion illegal global enterprise, second only to drug trafficking. Though the law has long outlawed sexual slavery, the George W. Bush administration began a vigorous attack on the systemic roots of human trafficking, newly empowered by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.
Ghislaine Maxwell accuser returns to witness stand for cross-examination
The first accuser in Ghislaine Maxwell’s child sex trafficking trial has returned to the witness stand on Wednesday morning at Manhattan federal court.
This accuser, who used the pseudonym “Jane” in court, alleged that Maxwell drew her into Jeffrey Epstein’s predatory orbit when she was 14 years old.
