Who Is Maurene Comey? James Comey's Daughter Is Lead Prosecutor in Ghislaine Maxwell Trial
Published Nov 29, 2021 at 5:31 AM EST
A federal prosecutor working on the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, which is set to go to trial on Monday, is the daughter of former FBI Director James Comey.
Maurene Comey, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), is one of the lead prosecutors in the criminal case against Maxwell, and had been picked to hold a similar role in the case of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein prior to his death in August 2019.
As the child sex-trafficking trial of Epstein associate Maxwell is scheduled to begin on November 29, attention now turns to the prosecutors in the case, which includes Comey and assistant U.S. Attorneys Alex Rossmiller and Alison Gainfort Moe.
Maxwell is charged with six sex-trafficking charges. She has pleaded not guilty in the case and if convicted on all charges, faces a prison sentence of up to 50 years...
newsweek.com
Ghislaine Maxwell’s little black book to remain secret in court deal
Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein. The nature of their relationship is a key battleground between defence and prosecution
Jacqui Goddard, Miami
Monday December 13 2021, 10.00pm GMT, The Times
The prosecution and defence in the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell have agreed that her “little black book” of contacts will never be made public even though the jury was allowed to see part of it.
Judge Alison Nathan ruled at Manhattan federal court that a only limited amount of material from the British socialite’s contacts book would be released under seal.
Maxwell, 59, is accused of procuring, grooming and trafficking young girls for sexual abuse by the paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein from 1994 to 2004. She has pleaded not guilty but faces decades in prison if convicted.
The 97-page book, containing the names and contact details of almost 2,000 people including world leaders, celebrities and businessmen, was published by Gawker, a news website, in 2015, with some redactions. It has long been a topic of fascination for the insight it provided into the social circles in which Maxwell and Epstein moved.
Associates included the Duke of York, who has denied allegations that he was involved in sexual abuse, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and the Victoria’s Secret founder Les Wexner.
Maxwell’s defence is preparing to present legal arguments on Thursday, when they are expected to call 35 witnesses. The number of individuals who will be questioned suggests that any hopes Maxwell had that the jury would be sent out before Christmas have been dashed.
The witnesses for Maxwell will be called to challenge allegations that she helped to recruit, groom and traffick victims for Epstein. It is also expected that there may be a tussle over whether some of the witnesses should be granted anonymity.
In a letter to the judge Bobbi Sternheim, for the defence, said: “Three of the defence witnesses have requested to testify under their first names or under a pseudonym. The government opposes this request. The court’s ruling on this issue may impact the willingness of these witnesses to testify, thereby compromising Ms Maxwell’s right to present her defence.”
The prosecution in the Maxwell case rested last Friday after ten days of testimony that included four alleged victims taking the witness stand.
The defence indicated on Friday that it anticipated its case will last between two and four days. The new list of witnesses – whose identities have not yet been revealed - threatens a more prolonged timetable, if all 35 are called to the stand.
“We are still trying to make travel arrangements for defence witnesses, many of whom are coming from locations out of the district and abroad and we have not been able to reach counsel for some of the witnesses over the weekend,” Sternheim wrote in her letter to the judge.
Epstein, 66, died after hanging himself in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficing charges. His death was ruled a suicide by New York’s chief medical examiner.
Maxwell, the daughter of the disgraced British newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, was arrested in July last year. Her defence team has sought to argue that she and Epstein, who was convicted in Flordia in 2008 of procuring a child for prostitution, did not collude and were not close. A recent cache of photographs released during the trial, however, suggest they were close for at least part of their relationship.
Her lawyers have also said that the conditions in which she is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn were “reprehensible and utterly inappropriate for a woman on the cusp on turning 60 with no criminal record or history of violence”.
In a reference to the fictional serial killer and cannibal created by the author Thomas Harris and portrayed by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, Sternheim added: “The surveillance [while in her jail] rivals scenes of Hannibal Lecter’s incarceration despite the absence of the cage and plastic face guard.”
The trial continues.
Socialite’s absent husband may have new love
Maxwell with Scott Borgerson, a technology entrepreneur, in 2013
Ghislaine Maxwell’s husband may be in a new relationship, it emerged yesterday (David Charter writes).
Scott Borgerson is said to be dating Kris McGinn, a mother of two and yoga enthusiast who is a journalist in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a small town in Massachusetts, the Daily Mail reported.
Maxwell is believed to have secretly married Borgerson, a technology entrepreneur, in 2016. Court papers supporting her bail application last year showed that she had transferred her assets to a trust controlled by him.
However, Borgerson, 44, has not been seen during the opening two weeks of Maxwell’s trial in New York.
Maxwell lived with Borgerson in his property facing the beach in Manchester-by-the-Sea for about a year. She left in December 2019 when she bought Tuckedaway, a secluded home a two-hour drive away in Bradford, New Hampshire. She was arrested there in an early-morning raid in July last year.
Borgerson and McGinn, 49, who is recently divorced, declined to comment.
Borgerson is believed to have met Maxwell more than eight years ago through events linked to their mutual interest in ocean preservation while he was married to his previous wife. His divorce was finalised in December 2015.
In the unsuccessful bail application for Maxwell last year Borgerson said in a letter to the court: “I have never witnessed anything close to inappropriate with Ghislaine. The Ghislaine I know is a wonderful and loving person. I believe Ghislaine had nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes.”
thetimes.com
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