Two years after Jeffrey Epstein's suicide behind bars, a jury has been selected in New York City to determine a central question in the long-running sex trafficking case: Was his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's puppet or accomplice?
Twelve jurors and six alternates will hear Ms Maxwell's case, starting with opening statements expected later in the day.
They were picked from a pool of 40 to 60 potential jurors who made it through initial questioning.
READ MORE: Who is the real Ghislaine Maxwell: Epstein enabler or pawn?
Ms Maxwell — who once dated the financier — is accused of acting as Epstein's chief enabler, recruiting and grooming young girls for him to abuse.
The charges against her stem from the allegations of four women who say she and Epstein victimised them as teens from 1994 to 2004.
Prosecutors say there's evidence Ms Maxwell knew that the victims, including a 14-year-old, were below the age of consent and that she arranged travel for some between Epstein's homes, including his estate in Palm Beach, Florida; his posh Manhattan townhouse and at other residences in Santa Fe, New Mexico and London.
Epstein killed himself at a Manhattan federal detention centre in August 2019, a month after his arrest on sex trafficking charges.
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Authorities charged Ms Maxwell in July 2020, arresting her after tracking her to a $1 million New Hampshire estate where she had been holed up during the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Maxwell has pleaded not guilty and vehemently denies wrongdoing. The 59-year-old British socialite, jailed in Brooklyn since her arrest, has called the claims against her "absolute rubbish".
Her lawyers and family say she was Epstein's pawn, now paying "a blood price" to satisfy public desire to see someone held accountable for his crimes.
The wealthy, Oxford-educated woman is the daughter of British newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991 after falling off his yacht — named the Lady Ghislaine — near the Canary Islands.
Robert Maxwell, whose holdings at the time included the New York Daily News, was facing allegations he had illegally looted his businesses' pension funds.
Ms Maxwell holds US, British and French citizenships and was repeatedly denied bail in the run-up to her trial.
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