Late last month, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the courts to unseal grand jury transcripts in the case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend and associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.The request was an attempt to calm the furore after the DOJ announced in June that it would not release any additional documents from the investigation into the high-profile sex trafficker.Judges asked lawyers for Maxwell, Epstein and their victims to respond to the court by Tuesday regarding their positions on the release of the documents.As the deadline arrives and judges consider whether to grant the DOJ’s request, we look at who Maxwell is and what the case is about.Who is Ghislaine Maxwell?Maxwell, the daughter of the late British media baron, Robert Maxwell, is the only Epstein associate who was convicted in connection with his activities.A former girlfriend of Epstein who later became his business associate, Maxwell was found guilty in December 2021 of helping Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison.What was Maxwell found guilty of?At her trial, four women testified that Maxwell groomed them as teenagers to participate in sexual acts with Epstein and sometimes participated in the abuse.She was ultimately found guilty on five of six counts: sex trafficking of minors, conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport a minor with the inten …
