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Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 136 Filed 02/04/21 Page 6 of 27 INTRODUCTION Counts Five and Six of the Superseding Indictment (“Indictment”) allege that Ghislaine Maxwell committed perjury by testifying falsely in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623. According to the prosecution, these false statements were made in a civil defamation lawsuit against Ms. Maxwell when she responded to questions in her depositions on April 22, 2016 (Count Five) and was compelled by court order, with the promise of confidentiality by the Court and plaintiff's counsel, to respond to additional, immaterial questions in a second deposition on July 22, 2016 (Count Six). These counts fail, as a matter of law, because the questions posed were ambiguous, the answers given were true, and both the questions and answers were immaterial to the defamation action. Accordingly, the Court should dismiss Counts Five and Six. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND I. The Underlying Civil Defamation Action A. Plaintiff’s Claims In 2015, Virginia Roberts Giuffre filed an action in this District alleging that Ghislaine Maxwell had defamed her. The alleged defamation centered on a statement from Ms. Maxwell’s attorney denying as “untrue” and “obvious lies” Ms. Giuffre’s demonstrably false claims about her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and others, including that she had been sexually trafficked to foreign presidents and award-winning scientists. The complaint alleged generally that Epstein “sexually abused” Giuffre between 1999 and 2002 and that Epstein abused more than 30 girls between 2001 and 2007.' Over the course of discovery in the defamation action, it became obvious that Giuffre (and her lawyers) had lied or misstated critical facts including, inter alia, her age, the various ' See Giuffre v. Maxwell, No. 15-cv-7433 (S.D.N.Y), Doc. # 001 at ¥ 9. DOJ-OGR-00002415