One of the four women who say they were “groomed” for sex by Ghislaine Maxwell testified Wednesday that disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein took her to meet Donald Trump when she was just 14.
Testifying at Maxwell’s trial in New York City, the woman who is being identified by the pseudonym Jane said on cross-examination that she met the future president in the 1990s at Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Jane did not allege any improper behavior by Trump and did not go into further detail about why she was at the resort.
“Mr. Epstein introduced you to Donald Trump, correct?” Laura Menninger, Maxwell’s defense attorney, asked.
“Yes,” Jane replied.
Jane also acknowledged that in 1998, she took part in a Miss Teen USA beauty pageant that was associated with Trump. It was not immediately clear if this was before or after the meeting at Mar-a-Lago.
NBC News has reached out to Trump’s spokesman to find out if the former president, who once called Epstein a “terrific guy,” has any recollection of meeting Jane. He had not responded by the time of publication.
Following Epstein’s 2019 arrest, Trump told reporters that he was “not a fan” of the financier.
Maxwell, a 59-year-old British socialite, has been accused of identifying and targeting vulnerable girls and young women and “grooming” them for sex with Epstein and other powerful men.
On trial for helping Epstein recruit and abuse Jane and three other underage girls, mostly in the 1990s, Maxwell has denied all the accusations and pleaded not guilty to the six charges leveled against her.
Maxwell’s lawyers contend that she is being “scapegoated” by federal prosecutors because they can’t try Epstein, a convicted sex offender who hanged himself in a Manhattan lockup two years ago while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.
The claim that Maxwell has been unfairly targeted for prosecution has been echoed by Maxwell’s siblings as well. On Wednesday, her sister Isabel and brother Kevin were in the courtroom.
The revelation that Jane crossed paths with Trump came a day after she testified in graphic detail about how Maxwell allegedly trained her how to “massage” and sexually satisfy Epstein.
Jane also testified that she was regularly abused by Epstein and took part in orgies that included both Maxwell and Epstein at the financier’s palatial homes in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City and on his New Mexico ranch.
When asked, Jane described the sex as “kissing, oral sex on each other, oral sex on Jeffrey, full-on intercourse.”
Back on the stand, Jane found her credibility questioned repeatedly by Menninger.
“Did you rehearse your testimony for direct questioning?” the defense attorney asked at one point.
“No,” Jane replied.
Menninger then produced a thank-you note to Epstein that included the line “You rock my world” and asked Jane if she wrote it.
“Yes, embarrassingly,” she answered.
Earlier, Jane testified she was still mourning the death of her dad when Maxwell and Epstein befriended her at age 14. She said Maxwell acted like a big sister while, at the same time, luring her into sex trafficking.
Jane admitted she didn’t tell investigators about Maxwell’s alleged involvement until after Epstein died by suicide in 2019.
“They did despicable things to me, and I didn’t want to talk about them,” she said Tuesday on cross-examination.
Maxwell’s trial in the Southern District of New York started Monday and is expected to last six weeks.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
