Ghislaine Maxwell and federal prosecutors have temporarily teamed up to ask a judge to keep a proposed questionnaire for potential jurors sealed from public view before Maxwell’s upcoming trial.
Maxwell is the British socialite accused of acting as a procurer of underage girls to be sexually abused by her friend Jeffrey Epstein.
Prosecutors, in a letter to the judge filed in court late Tuesday evening, said Maxwell’s lawyers want the written questionnaire and proposed series of oral questions for would-be jurors kept secret “to avoid media coverage that may prejudice the jury selection process.”
“The Government consents to the defense’s request,” prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York wrote to Manhattan federal Judge Alison Nathan, who is due to preside over Maxwell’s trial next month.
In the same letter, prosecutors noted that the submission of proposed jury questions includes notations of objections Maxwell’s lawyers and prosecutors have with particular questions suggested by either party.
Jury questionnaires as a rule include queries about whether a potential juror has prior knowledge of a criminal case, from news articles or other sources, whether they know people connected to the case, and whether they or people they know have been victims of crimes.
Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the prosecutors’ office, declined to comment on the letter. A lawyer for Maxwell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
She has pleaded not guilty in the case, and has been held without bail in a Brooklyn federal jail since last year pending trial. Her trial next month will deal only with the sex-related charges. She will be tried at a later date for the perjury case.
In another letter to Nathan filed Tuesday, prosecutors said their “conservative” estimate is that they will rest their case against Maxwell within four weeks from the start of the trial next month, but that they could rest “as early as the third week of trial” provided that cross-examination of witnesses by defense lawyers are not overly long.
Maxwell’s lawyers, according to the same letter, estimate their case will last about two weeks. But that could change after defense attorneys review the prosecutors’ witness and exhibit lists.
Both sides are asking Nathan to seat jurors for the trial who are available “beyond the Christmas holiday,” the letter said.
