The public release of the Epstein records puts Maxwell under renewed scrutiny amid his claims of innocence.

NEW YORK (AP) — Days after Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to immediately release her from a 20-year prison sentence, the public release of grand jury transcripts from her sex-trafficking case returned the spotlight to the victims whose charges helped send her to prison.

The release of transcripts as part of the ongoing release of Justice Department investigative files on Maxwell and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed to grand jurors how an FBI agent told grand jurors about Maxwell’s role in the decades-long sexual abuse of girls and young women.

Maxwell, a British socialite and publishing heiress, was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 after four women told a federal jury in New York City about how Epstein abused them in the 1990s and early 2000s. Epstein never went to trial. He was arrested on sex trafficking charges in July 2019 and committed suicide in his cell at a Manhattan federal prison a month later.

Two weeks ago, as the Justice Department prepared to begin releasing what are commonly known as the Epstein files, Maxwell filed a habeas petition, asking a federal judge to free him on the grounds that “substantial new evidence” proved the constitutional violation had tainted his trial.

Maxwell claimed that exculpatory information was withheld and witnesses lied in their testimony. She filed the petition herself without the help of a lawyer.

This week, the judge, Paul A. Engelmeyer chided Maxwell for failing to remove the victim’s name and other identifying information from his court documents. He said future files should be sealed and kept out of public view until they are reviewed and redacted to protect the victims’ identities.

Victims fear Maxwell will be pardoned

Epstein prosecutor Daniel Bensky said the release of the records has focused attention on Maxwell’s crimes among his victims. Bensky said she engages in daily discussions with about two dozen other victims who say Maxwell is “a criminal who was 1,000% sexually active.”

“I’ve heard things curdling your blood. I had a conversation with a survivor last night who said she was a puppet,” Bensky said.

Bensky said Epstein sexually assaulted her two decades ago. She said she was never personally abused by Maxwell.

Slow and heavy redact files

Transcripts of grand jury proceedings resulting in Maxwell’s indictment were released this week under the Epstein File Transparency Act, which was enacted last month after public and political pressure.

The Justice Department has been posting records from time to time until it acknowledged last Friday that Congress would lose the mandolin to release all the records. It blamed delays in the time-consuming process of concealing victims’ names and other identifying information.

On Wednesday, the department said it could take “a few more weeks” to release the full trove after it suddenly found more than a million potentially relevant documents. It was a surprising development after department officials suggested months ago that they had already accounted for a vast universe of Epstein-related material.

Some of the Epstein and Maxwell grand jury records were initially released with heavy redactions — a 119-page document marked “Grand Jury-NY” — was completely blacked out. Updated versions posted over the weekend.

FBI agent testifies Maxwell manipulated young woman

The FBI agent’s grand jury testimony, describing interviews with Epstein victims, foreshadowed trial testimony a year later from four women describing Maxwell’s role in sexually abusing them from 1994 to 2004.

The agent told Maxwell and Epstein about a woman he described as a 14-year-old attending a Michigan summer art camp in 1994. The flight logs went to the school sponsoring Epstein and Maxwell Camp because Epstein was a donor.

According to the agent, whose name was redacted from the transcript, the girl had a chance meeting with Epstein and Maxwell one day. After learning that the girl was from Palm Beach, Florida, Epstein said he sometimes gives scholarships to students and they requested her phone number.

Once home, the girl went to Epstein’s estate for tea with her mother and was impressed when Epstein said she had provided a scholarship, so the mother said Epstein was like a “godfather,” the agent said.

The agent said the girl began visiting the estate regularly as Epstein and Maxwell showered her with gifts and trips to the movies, and Epstein began paying for voice lessons and giving money owed to her struggling mother.

The agent said that Katie found her relationship with Epstein and Maxwell strange, “but Maxwell normalized it for her. She was like a big, older sister and commented, ‘That’s what big men do.’

Eventually, the agent testified, the girl saw Maxwell topless in the pool. After she revealed that she hoped to become an actor and model, Epstein told her that he was best friends with the owner of Victoria’s Secret and that she should learn to be comfortable in her underwear and not be a curmudgeon, the agent said.

Then, the agent said, the girl asked Epstein what that meant, and the financier pulled her into his arms and masturbated. After that, the agent added, the girl’s encounters with Epstein began to include sex, particularly in his massage parlor.

Maxwell was sometimes there with other girls, the agent said. The agent said one of the girls would start massaging Epstein and Maxwell would tease the girls.

“He would grab the girl’s breasts, and instruct the girls what to do,” the agent said, relaying the girl’s account. Maxwell’s demeanor during the encounter was “very casual; he acted like it was normal,” the agent said.

The released testimony appears to mirror testimony at Maxwell’s 2021 trial by a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.”

At trial, Jane said that Maxwell also participated in group sessions between several women and Epstein that usually involved Epstein or Maxwell taking them all to a bedroom or massage room at a Palm Beach residence.