"Is That It?"

So much is happening, but there's so little news. That applies to the Ghislaine Maxwell trial as much as anything else. In a surprise move yesterday, the prosecution rested its case after less than two weeks, when at the start, the trial was predicted to last as long as six weeks.

From the very limited informed commentary I've seen, the consensus appears to be that this is a show trial that's meant to punish Jeffrey Epstein post mortem without, however, touching in any way the very prominent figures from Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Prince Andrew on down who may also have beeen implicated in Epstein's activites.

A mention by one of the YouTube commentators on the trial, Robert Gruler, of an episode in Thursday's abbreviated session brings this out. The prosecution called a witness, Tracy Chapell of FedEx, to testify about packages Epstein sent to victims during 2002. During cross-examination, Maxwell's counsel asked the witness to note the signature on the FedEx invoice, an "S.Kellen".

Gruler points out that this is Sarah Kellen, one of the named Epstein co-conspirators listed on the 2007 non prosecution agreement with Epstein, in which the US Justice Department "agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein", including Ms Kellen (p 5). At that point, the judge called an early end to the trial session for the day due to the illness of an attorney.

Gruler doesn't say much about what potential use Maxwell's lawyers may make of this information, but it raises the obvious question: there are people who could be on trial now, but they aren't, because the US Justice Department agreed not to prosecute them. The agreement lists three others specifically in addition to Kellen, but others are covered in the agreement who aren't listed. What on earth is up with that?

In addition, the agreemernt is with Alexander Acosta, then US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, but reports are that it was reviewed and approved by main Justice at a "high level", and Acosta later said he offered a lenient plea deal because "he was told that Epstein 'belonged to intelligence', was 'above his pay grade,' and to 'leave it alone'". The link continues, "The fact that the agreement with Epstein also protected unnamed 'potential co-conspirators' from federal prosecution drew speculation that perhaps the deal was intended to protect influential people in Epstein's orbit".

A Vanity Fair piece by Gabriel Sherman sums up the issues:

In seeking to put the disgraced British heiress behind bars for a possible 80 years, prosecutors are aiming to redress serial failures by the justice system to punish the crimes of her partner: the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Which is why it’s shocking—and tragic—that the prosecution’s case against Maxwell appears far weaker than many people expected.

. . . On Tuesday, the third accuser testified that Epstein sexually abused her more than a hundred times starting when she was a 14-year-old. The woman, identified by her first name Carolyn, recounted that Maxwell often scheduled her massages with Epstein and once groped her while she was naked and said she had “a great body for Mr. Epstein and his friends.”

. . . Unfortunately, prosecutors didn’t follow up and ask Carolyn to name Epstein’s friends. Carolyn’s gut-wrenching testimony was also undermined by a seeming lack of preparation by the prosecution. Under cross-examination, one of Maxwell’s lawyers, Jeffrey Pagliuca, exposed inconsistencies in Carolyn’s prior comments on the case. Pagliuca noted that Carolyn didn’t mention Maxwell’s name once during her first interview with the FBI in 2007. Neither did Carolyn include Maxwell’s name in subsequent lawsuits she filed against Epstein and alleged coconspirator Sarah Kellen.

. . . The weakest plank in the prosecution’s case, however, has been the lack of testimony from Epstein’s innermost circle. Prosecutors haven’t called Epstein’s highest-profile accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, to the stand, even though her name has been mentioned numerous times by other witnesses. Meanwhile, Epstein’s controversial 2007 nonprosecution agreement listed four alleged coconspirators: Sarah Kellen, Adriana Ross, Lesley Groff, and Nadia Marcinkova (Notably, Maxwell’s name wasn’t included). These women conceivably could testify about Maxwell’s role in the alleged sex trafficking operation. Why didn’t the government gain their cooperation against Maxwell?

It looks for now as if the prosecution's aim has been to convict Maxwell on the narrowest possible grounds while keeping any connection between Epstein and any high-level figures off the agenda. But this answers no questions while raising other new ones. All I can conclude for now is that this hasn't been a good year for the lizard people, and likely this will continue.