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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
x
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
v.
GHISLAINE MAXWELL.
Defendant.
x
20 Cr. 330 (AJN)
MEMORANDUM OF GHISLAINE MAXWELL
IN SUPPORT OF HER MOTION FOR A SEVERANCE OF AND SEPARATE TRIAL
ON COUNTS FIVE AND SIX OF THE SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT
Jeffrey S. Pagliuca
Laura A. Menninger
HADDON, MORGAN & FOREMAN P.C.
150 East 10th Avenue
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: 303-831-7364
Mark S. Cohen
Christian R. Everdell
COHEN & GRESSER LLP
800 Third Avenue New
York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-957-7600
Bobbi C. Sternheim
Law Offices of Bobbi C. Sternheim
33 West 19th Street - 4th Floor
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-243-1100
Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell
EFTA00091875
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
ii
INTRODUCTION
1
OVERVIEW OF THE ALLEGATIONS
2
A.
Counts One through Four (the "Mann Act Counts")
2
B.
Counts Five and Six (the "Perjury Counts")
2
APPLICABLE LAW
3
A.
Joinder of Offenses
3
B.
Severance of Offenses
5
ANALYSIS
6
A.
The Perjury Counts Are Improperly Joined Under Rule 8(a) and Must Be Severed
6
B.
The Perjury Counts Should Be Severed Under Rule 14(a) Because Their Inclusion Will
Substantially Prejudice Ms. Maxwell at Trial
9
CONCLUSION
13
Certificate of Service
15
EFTA00091876
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Cases
Drew v. United States, 331 F.2d 85 (D.C. Cir. 1964)
6
United States v. Blakney, 941 F.2d 114 (2d Cir. 1991)
4
United States v. Botti, No. 3:08-cr-00230 (CSH), 2009 WL 3157582 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 25, 2009)
4, 9
United States v. Bradford, 487 F. Supp. 1093 (D. Conn. 1980)
5
United States v. Brown, No. 07-0296-1, 2008 WL 161146 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 16, 2008)
4, 7
United States v. Burke, 789 F. Supp. 2d 395 (S.D.N.Y. 2011)
5, 6, 12
United States v. Chevalier, 776 F. Supp. 853 (D. Vt. 1991)
6
United States v. Halper, 590 F.2d 422 (2d Cir. 1978)
passim
United States v. Jackson, 562 F.2d 789 (D.C. Cir. 1977)
5
United States v. Lewis, 626 F.2d 940 (D.C. Cir. 1980)
6
United States v. Martinez, Nos. S2 92 Cr. 839 (SWK), 1993 WL 322768 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 19,
1993)
4, 7
United States v. Mitan, No. CRIM.A 08-760-01, 2009 WL 2328870 (E.D. Pa. July 28, 2009) 5, 9
United States v. Potamitis, 739 F.2d 784 (2d Cir. 1984)
4, 8
United States v. Ramos, No. 06 Cr. 172 (LTS), 2009 WL 1619912
(S.D.N.Y. Jun. 5, 2009)
United States v.
United States v.
United States v.
United States v.
United States v.
United States v.
United States v.
Randazzo, 80 F.3d 623 (1st Cir. 1996)
Rivera, 546 F.3d 245 (2d Cir. 2008)
Sampson, 385 F.3d 183 (2d Cir. 2004)
Turoff, 853 F.2d 1037 (2d Cir.1988)
Walker, 142 F.3d 103 (2d Cir. 1998)
Werner, 620 F.2d 922 (2d Cir. 1980)
Winchester, 407 F. Supp. 261 (D. Del. 1975)
5, 6, 11
4
4
5
3, 5, 10
5
3, 4, 10
5
ii
EFTA00091877
Statutes
18 U.S.C. § 1623
3
18 U.S.C. § 2422
2
18 U.S.C. § 2423(a)
2
Rules
Fed. R. Crim. P. 8(a)
passim
Fed. R. Crim. P. 14(a)
passim
Rule of Professional Conduct 3.7
14
iii
EFTA00091878
INTRODUCTION
Ms. Maxwell, pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 8(a) and 14, requests that the Court enter an
order severing Counts Five and Six of the Superseding Indictment ("Indictment") from Counts
One through Four because these Counts have been improperly joined and a joint trial would
result in substantial prejudice to Ms. Maxwell.
Counts Five and Six of the Indictment allege that Ms. Maxwell made materially false
statements at two civil depositions in 2016 that were part of a defamation action brought against
her more than twenty years after the conduct alleged in Counts One through Four supposedly
took place (1994-1997). The plaintiff in the defamation action,
made
wild and false accusations that she had been sexually trafficked by Epstein and Ms. Maxwell to
dozens of famous politicians, professors, foreign leaders, and others. When Ms. Maxwell denied
these allegations as false,
sued for defamation. Discovery conducted in the defamation
action established that
stories, sold to tabloids for large sums of money, were in fact
false. Those accused by Ms. =,
Professor Alan Dershowitz, for example, denounced her as
a "serial liar." Regardless, Ms.
is not one of the three accusers identified in Counts One
through Four of the Superseding Indictment and her claims relate to a different time period
entirely. Allowing Counts Five and Six to be tried along with Counts One through Four will
significantly prejudice Ms. Maxwell because it will allow the government to introduce testimony
of alleged sexual abuse that purportedly occurred outside of the time period alleged in Counts
One through Four, despite the fact that Ms. Maxwell (unlike Jeffrey Epstein) was never
criminally charged with that conduct. As a result, the jury may convict Ms. Maxwell of Counts
One through Four based on an improper inference of criminal propensity.
Furthermore, the Court and the jury and the Court will have to resolve numerous complex
legal and factual issues in connection with the perjury charges that will lengthen and complicate
1
EFTA00091879
the trial, raise a substantial risk of juror confusion, and may operate to deprive Ms. Maxwell of
her counsel of choice. Accordingly, the Court should sever Counts Five and Six.
OVERVIEW OF THE ALLEGATIONS
A. Counts One through Four (the "Mann Act Counts")
Counts One and Three of the Indictment allege that Ms. Maxwell conspired with Jeffrey
Epstein and "others known and unknown" to violate two separate provisions of the Mann Act.
Count One alleges that Ms. Maxwell conspired with Epstein to entice "one or more individuals"
to travel in interstate and foreign commerce to engage in "sexual activity for which a person can
be charged with a criminal offense" in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422. Indictment
9-10. Count
Three alleges that Ms. Maxwell conspired with Epstein to transport "an individual" in interstate
and foreign commerce to engage in "sexual activity for which a person can be charged with a
criminal offense" in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a). Id. 11 15-16.
Counts One and Three each allege four identical overt acts in furtherance of the
conspiracy involving three accusers.' Id.11111, 17. All of the overt acts allegedly occurred at
unspecified times "between in or about 1994 and in or about 1997" in New York, Florida, New
Mexico, and London, England. Id.
Counts Two and Four charge Ms. Maxwell with substantive violations of
18 U.S.C. §§ 2422 and 2423(a). Id. 911 13, 19. Counts Two and Four allege offenses as to
Accuser-1 only, not Accusers-2 or -3. Id. Like Counts One and Three, Counts Two and Four are
based on conduct that allegedly occurred at unspecified times between 1994 and 1997. Id.
9
1
9
1
13.
19.
B. Counts Five and Six (the "Perjury Counts")
' The indictment refers to the accusers as Minor Victim-1, Minor Victim-2, and Minor Victim-3.
We will refer to them as Accuser-I, Accuser-2, and Accuser-3.
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EFTA00091880
Counts Five and Six of the Indictment allege that Ms. Maxwell committed perjury in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623 by testifying falsely at two separate civil depositions—one on
April 22, 2016 (Count Five) and the other on July 22, 2016 (Count Six). Id.
21, 23.
APPLICABLE LAW
A. Joinder of Offenses
Rule 8(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure provides, in relevant part,
(a) Joinder of Offenses. The indictment or information may charge a
defendant in separate counts with 2 or more offenses if the offenses
charged--whether felonies or misdemeanors or both--are of the same or
similar character, or are based on the same act or transaction, or are
connected with or constitute parts of a common scheme or plan.
Rule 8(a) sets forth three different circumstances in which separate offenses may be
properly joined in the same indictment; namely, when the offenses: (1) "are of the same or
similar character," (2) "are based on the same act or transaction," or (3) "are connected with or
constitute parts of a common scheme or plan." Fed. R. Crim. P. 8(a). Although charging
separate offenses in the same indictment and allowing them to be tried together "inevitably
involves some danger of prejudice" to the defendant, Rule 8 permits joinder of offenses in
circumstances where "gains in trial efficiency outweigh the recognized prejudice that accrues to
the accused." United States v. Turoff, 853 F.2d 1037, 1042-43 (2d Cir.1988); see also United
States v. Werner, 620 F.2d 922, 928 (2d Cir. 1980) (purpose of Rule 8 is to promote "trial
convenience and economy of judicial and prosecutorial resources"); United States v. Halper, 590
F.2d 422, 430 (2d Cir. 1978) ("efficiency and economy" are the "customary justifications for
joinder").
In conducting a Rule 8(a) analysis, "no one characteristic is always sufficient to establish
`similarity' of offenses ... and each case depends largely on its own facts." United States v.
3
EFTA00091881
Blakney, 941 F.2d 114, 116 (2d Cir. 1991) (quotations and citation omitted). "'Similar' charges
include those that are 'somewhat alike,' or those 'having a general likeness' to each
other." United States v. Rivera, 546 F.3d 245, 253 (2d Cir. 2008) (quoting Werner, 620 F.2d at
926). Offenses are "connected" or part of a "common scheme or plan" if the counts "grow out of
related transactions." United States v. Randazzo, 80 F.3d 623, 627 (1st Cir. 1996). By contrast,
offenses are not "connected" and joinder is inappropriate when "[c]ommission of one of the
offenses neither depended upon nor necessarily led to the commission of the other; proof of the
one act neither constituted nor depended upon proof of the other." Halper, 590 F.2d at 429.
Similarly, offenses that are separated by time and location, and were allegedly committed
under different circumstances, are not sufficiently connected to warrant joinder. See United
States v. Martinez, Nos. S2 92 Cr. 839 (SWK), 1993 WL 322768, at *8-*9 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 19,
1993) (granting severance of firearm possession and narcotics conspiracy counts where firearm
was seized in different location over four months after narcotics conspiracy ended "under
circumstances having no bearing on either the alleged narcotics conspiracy, or any of
[defendant's] coconspirators"); United States v. Brown, No. 07-0296-1, 2008 WL 161146, at *5
(ED. Pa. Jan. 16, 2008) (granting severance where a firearm possession count was unrelated
"both physically and temporally" to the narcotics counts in the indictment (emphasis original)).
Although the Second Circuit has recognized that it is generally permissible to join
"underlying substantive crimes with perjury counts" where the false declarations "concern the
substantive offenses," United States v. Potamitis, 739 F.2d 784 (2d Cir. 1984), joinder is not
appropriate when the perjury or false statement allegations do not relate to, or have only a
speculative connection to, the other charges in the indictment. See United States v. Botti, No.
3:08-cr-00230 (CSH), 2009 WL 3157582, at *5 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 25, 2009) (severing structuring
4
EFTA00091882
counts alleging false statements to IRS agent from separate corruption counts due to "speculative
nature of the link" between the structuring and corruption offenses); United States v. Mitan, No.
CRIM.A 08-760-01, 2009 WL 2328870, at *3 (RD. Pa. July 28, 2009) (joinder improper where
alleged perjury did not arise from same transaction or comprise part of common plan with fraud
counts in indictment).
If one or more counts are improperly joined in an indictment, the court must sever the
misjoined counts. United States v. Bradford, 487 F. Supp. 1093, 1097 & n.5 (D. Conn. 1980)
("The remedy for the misjoinder is the severance of the misjoined count.") (citing United States
v. Jackson, 562 F.2d 789, 797 n.10 (D.C. Cir. 1977)); United States v. Winchester, 407 F. Supp.
261 (D. Del. 1975) (a finding of misjoinder requires the court to sever the offenses as a matter of
course "without regard to the merits of defendant's claims of prejudice" under Rule 14).
B. Severance of Offenses
Fed. R. Crim. P. 14 provides, in relevant part,
(a) Relief. If the joinder of offenses ... appears to prejudice a defendant or
the government, the court may order separate trials of counts, sever the
defendants' trials, or provide any other relief that justice requires.
Rule 14(a) allows a district court to grant severance even if joinder is proper under Rule
8. United States v. Burke, 789 F. Supp. 2d 395, 398 (S.D.N.Y. 2011) (citing Turoff, 853 F.2d at
1043). To prevail on a motion to sever, a defendant must show that failure to sever will cause
"substantial prejudice." United States v. Ramos, No. 06 Cr. 172 (LTS), 2009 WL 1619912, at *1
(S.D.N.Y. Jun. 5, 2009) (citing United States v. Sampson, 385 F.3d 183, 190 (2d Cir. 2004)).
The prejudice must be "sufficiently severe to outweigh the judicial economy that would be
realized by avoiding multiple lengthy trials." United States v. Walker, 142 F.3d 103, 110 (2d
Cir. 1998).
5
EFTA00091883
Prejudice sufficient to justify severance under Rule 14 may exist when: (I) the defendant
might become embarrassed or confounded in presenting separate defenses, (2) the jury might use
evidence of one of the crimes charged to infer a criminal disposition to commit the other crime
or crimes charged, or (3) the jury might cumulate evidence of the various crimes charged to find
guilt on a count, which if considered separately, it would not so find. Halper, 590 F.2d at 440
(citing Drew v. United States, 331 F.2d 85, 88 (D.C. Cir. 1964)); United States v. Chevalier, 776
F. Supp. 853, 857 (D. Vt. 1991) (citing United States v. Lewis, 626 F.2d 940, 945 (D.C. Cir.
1980)). The decision to sever is "committed to the sound discretion of the district court" and is
"virtually unreviewable" on appeal. Ramos, 2009 WL 1619912, at *1; Burke, 789 F. Supp. 2d at
398.
ANALYSIS
A. The Perjury Counts Are Improperly Joined Under Rule 8(a) and Must Be
Severed
The Perjury Counts (Counts Five and Six) were improperly joined and should be severed
from the Mann Act Counts (Counts One through Four) as a matter of law. The Perjury Counts
and the Mann Act Counts are entirely separate offenses that involve different time periods,
different alleged victims, and different substantive charges. The Mann Act Counts are confined,
purposefully, to a very narrow time period and allege that Ms. Maxwell enticed and transported
minors to engage in illegal sexual activity from 1994 to 1997. Indictment II 9, 13, 15, 19. The
Perjury Counts allege that Ms. Maxwell purportedly made false statements in 2016 in a civil
defamation action that concerned allegations of purported sexual abuse in a later time period
(1999-2002) for which Ms. Maxwell has never been charged criminally. Id. TI 21, 23; Ex. A at
3-5. The plaintiff in the defamation action,
is not one of the three
accusers referred to in the Mann Act Counts. Similarly, the people we believe to be the three
6
EFTA00091884
accusers were not part of the subject matter of the defamation action, nor were they deposed as
witnesses in that case. The Perjury Counts therefore are not "of the same or similar character,"
nor are they "based on the same act or transaction" as the Mann Act Counts and cannot be
joined. Fed. R. Crim. P. 8(a); see Halper, 590 F.2d at 430 (temporally and factually distinct
Medicaid fraud and tax evasion offenses were not based on same transaction, nor were they "of
the same or similar character" simply because both involved attempts to submit false information
to government agencies).
Furthermore, the perjury offenses purportedly occurred more than twenty years after the
offenses alleged in the Mann Act Counts. There is no allegation that Ms. Maxwell continued
conspiring with Epstein, or engaged in any misconduct at all, in the intervening time period. In
fact, the government did not charge Ms. Maxwell in connection with the investigation that led to
Epstein's Non-Prosecution Agreement in 2007, or in its 2019 indictment of Epstein, which
charged Epstein with sex trafficking offenses from 2002-2005. Joinder is improper when the
offenses are separated by such a significant time period and do not relate to each other. See
Martinez, 1993 WL 322768, at *8-*9 (joinder of firearm possession and narcotics conspiracy
counts improper under Rule 8(a) where firearm was seized in different location over four months
after narcotics conspiracy ended "under circumstances having no bearing on either the alleged
narcotics conspiracy, or any of [defendant's] coconspirators"); Brown, 2008 WL 161146, at *5
(joinder improper under Rule 8(a) where a firearm possession count was unrelated "both
physically and temporally" to narcotics counts in indictment (emphasis original)).
The Perjury Counts and the Mann Act Counts are also not "parts of a common scheme or
plan." Fed. R. Crim. P. 8(a). As a general matter, perjury, false statements, and obstruction of
justice offenses are sufficiently connected to and appropriately joined with underlying
7
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substantive crimes when the false declarations "concern the substantive offenses." Potamitis,
739 F.2d at 791. Such cases typically involve situations where the defendant was aware that he
was being investigated and either lied to the grand jury or made false statements to law
enforcement officers in an effort to thwart the existing investigation into the other offenses with
which he was charged. See, e.g., id. at 789-90 (joinder of perjury, false statements, and
obstruction of justice counts proper where defendant made false statements to FBI agents and
perjured himself in the grand jury); see also id. at 791 (collecting cases).
Here, the circumstances are very different and joinder is not appropriate. The
government does not allege that Ms. Maxwell lied to the grand jury or the FBI to derail its
investigation into the conduct underlying the Mann Act Counts. Instead, it alleges that Ms.
Maxwell made false statements in two depositions in an unrelated civil defamation action which
occurred in April and July 2016. Moreover, although the government alleges that some of the
questions posed at the depositions related to some of the alleged victims in this case (Indictment
11 2, 8), the questions were tangential to the defamation action, which was based on Ms.
Maxwell's denial of a purported conspiracy with Epstein from 1999-2002 involving Ms.
The alleged false statements underlying the Perjury Counts therefore do not "concern" the Mann
Act Counts and cannot be joined as part of a "common scheme or plan." Potamitis, 739 F.2d at
791.
The government makes only a half-hearted, and ineffective, attempt to allege a
connection between the Perjury Counts and the Mann Act Counts sufficient to satisfy Rule 8(a).
Paragraph 2 of the Indictment alleges:
(I]n an effort to conceal her crimes, MAXWELL repeatedly lied when questioned
about her conduct, including in relation to some of the minor victims described
herein, when providing testimony under oath in 2016.
8
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(Indictment ¶ 2; accord id. ¶ 8.) As discussed in Ms. Maxwell's Memorandum in Support of her
Motion to Dismiss Counts Five and Six, because the statements at issue are not perjurious, the
questions asked were confusing, ambiguous, and improperly formed. None of the questions, or
any answers, were material to any issue in the defamation action. There were no "crimes"
concealed by Ms. Maxwell's answers which were both true and reflective of the poor
questioning by the plaintiff's lawyers. The Government does not articulate how statements like:
"I don't know what you are talking about," an admission that Ms. Maxwell "could not make a
list" upon demand, her lack of knowledge about undefined "devices" or "toys" could possibly
"conceal her crimes." Accordingly, the government's purported connection between the Perjury
Counts and the Mann Act Counts defies logic and is insufficient to permit joinder under Rule
8(a). See Botti, 2009 WL 3157582, at *5 (joinder improper due to "speculative nature of the
link" between structuring counts alleging false statements to IRS agent and separate corruption
counts); Mitan, 2009 WL 2328870, at *3 (joinder improper where alleged perjury arose from
false statement in connection with defendant's bail application, not an attempt to "cover up"
underlying scheme to defraud with which defendant was charged).
B. The Perjury Counts Should Be Severed Under Rule 14(a) Because Their
Inclusion Will Substantially Prejudice Ms. Maxwell at Trial
Even if the Court finds that joinder is proper under Rule 8, the Court should nevertheless
exercise its discretion to sever Counts Five and Six under Rule 14(a) because of the substantial
prejudice to Ms. Maxwell and these proceedings. A joint trial of the Perjury Counts will require
a full-blown re-litigation of the defamation action, which will result in a collateral matter taking
over the trial. Substantial amounts of evidence that would be inadmissible and irrelevant as to
the Mann Act Counts will, necessarily, be presented in order to prove the Perjury Counts. For
example, there will need to be a collateral trial on whether
statements
9
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about an alleged conspiracy from 1999-2002 were in fact lies, even though the Mann Act Counts
have nothing to do with
and are based on an entirely separate time period. The jury will
also need to be instructed on the elements of civil defamation and the various defenses, and they
will need to evaluate whether the alleged perjurious statements were material to the defamation
action. At the time the defamation case was dismissed, more than 50 substantive motions were
pending before the District Court. Resolution of the materiality question would necessarily
involve adjudicating those motions. Accordingly, joining the Perjury Counts would substantially
lengthen the trial and unnecessarily complicate the factual issues put before the jury; it would not
serve the goals of trial efficiency and judicial economy, which joinder is supposed to promote.
See Turoff, 853 F.2d at 1042-43; Werner, 620 F.2d at 928; Halper, 590 F.2d at 430.
A joint trial with the Perjury Counts would also substantially prejudice Ms. Maxwell
because it would necessarily introduce allegations of purported sex abuse from 1999-2002 for
which Ms. Maxwell has never been charged criminally and which is well outside of the time
period alleged in the Mann Act Counts. The Palm Beach Police Department thoroughly
investigated allegations of Epstein's sexual abuse in the early-mid 2000s and did not find any
evidence against Ms. Maxwell. The documents produced in discovery show that none of the
more than 30 alleged victims who were interviewed in that investigation testified that they met,
talked to, or identified Ms. Maxwell as someone involved with Epstein's alleged scheme.
Moreover, had the government credited Ms.
allegations against Ms. Maxwell, it would
no doubt have charged Ms. Maxwell in the 2019 indictment, which charged Epstein alone with
sex trafficking offenses from 2002-2005. It did not. Allowing the government to introduce
purported evidence of an uncharged and unsubstantiated conspiracy with Epstein through the
vehicle of the Perjury Counts would be extremely prejudicial and create a substantial risk that the
I0
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jury would convict Ms. Maxwell on the Mann Act Counts based on a false inference of criminal
propensity. Similarly, it would create a substantial risk that the jury will confuse the legal and
factual issues pertinent to the Perjury Counts and convict Ms. Maxwell without independently
considering those counts. See Bonzes, 2009 WL 1619912, at *2 (severing "temporally distinct"
drug counts involving a different controlled substance from other drug counts because of "the
potential for jury confusion, or improper propensity inferences, with respect to the drug-related
aspects of the original charges").
Furthermore, the government's decision to allege violations only in the narrow 1994-
1997 time period was deliberate—it did so, in part, to try to avoid the impact of Epstein's 2007
Non-Prosecution Agreement ("NPA"). In its opposition to Ms. Maxwell's initial bail
application, the government argued that the NPA did not protect Ms. Maxwell from prosecution
principally because the Indictment did not charge conduct covered by the NPA, which the
government argues "was limited by its terms to conduct spanning from 2001 to 2007, a time
period that post-dates the conduct charged in the Indictment." (Dkt. 22 at 54).2 The
government now wants it both ways. It has confined the allegations in the Indictment to the
earlier time frame to try to prevent a legal challenge that would result in the dismissal of the
Mann Act Counts, but at the same time it seeks to introduce conduct from the later time period
by joining the Perjury Counts. The government should not be permitted to do so.
In addition, joinder of the Perjury Counts would prejudice Ms. Maxwell because it could
impact the ability of Ms. Maxwell's counsel of choice to participate in the criminal trial. The
Perjury Counts will involve complicated legal issues about permissible deposition questions,
whether the answers to the poorly formulated questions would have been allowed, the role of a
The defense disputes that the coverage of the NPA is so limited. See Motion to Dismiss
Indictment for Breach of Non-Prosecution Agreement.
II
EFTA00091889
lawyer in a deposition, and a legal opinion about what was "material" in the context of the civil
proceeding. It is unclear how the Government intends to address these issues, however, a trial
with the perjury counts will necessarily involve litigating a complicated defamation action within
a criminal trial, making the trial of this case unnecessarily lengthy and confusing. By May,
2017, shortly before the civil defamation case was dismissed, the matter had generated over 900
docket entries. Approximately 50 substantive motions relating to the admissibility of expert
testimony, deposition testimony, and the admissibility of evidence remained unresolved. Judge
Sweet had yet to rule on evidentiary challenges to thousands of deposition questions and answers
contained in dozens of bankers boxes wheeled into his courtroom on dollies. A trial involving
the perjury counts may well involve revisiting all of these unresolved issues.
Inclusion of the Perjury Counts injects into this case the performance and credibility of
Ms. Maxwell's lawyers and may require Ms. Maxwell's counsel of choice to testify. Presumably,
this would result in disqualification of lawyers who have represented Ms. Maxwell for over five
years from the entire trial, even though there is no reason why their testimony would be required
in connection with the Mann Act Counts. See, Rule of Professional Conduct 3.7.
Severance is still appropriate even though the government alleges that some of the
questions posed at the depositions related to some of the alleged victims in this case. Indictment
II 2, 8. Even if the government uses some minimal amount of overlapping evidence to prove
both the Perjury Counts and the Mann Act Counts, the miniscule gain in efficiency of
introducing proof is far outweighed be the much larger inefficiency of substantially lengthening
and complicating the trial and by the risk of substantial prejudice to the defendant discussed
above. See Burke, 789 F. Supp. 2d at 398 (severing witness tampering charges from RICO
conspiracy charges in the interests of judicial economy, despite fact that government would have
12
EFTA00091890
to present "some overlapping proof" and "five limited overlapping witnesses" to prove both
charges).
Finally, severance is appropriate because a joint trial including the Perjury Counts will
necessarily introduce into the trial the issue of Ms. Maxwell's credibility, even if she decides to
assert her Fifth Amendment right not to testify. By alleging that Ms. Maxwell lied about sexual
and other salacious topics, the Government is explicitly putting its very big thumb on the
credibility scale. The Government will attempt to argue to the jury that Ms. Maxwell lied about
the allegations in the Perjury Counts and that Ms. Maxwell is a liar in general. This is a tool not
normally afforded to the accuser in a criminal case. It will be difficult, if not impossible, for Ms.
Maxwell to lodge appropriate objections and the Court to make appropriate rulings and provide
limiting instructions on the evidence. There is a substantial risk that the jury will convict Ms.
Maxwell on Counts One-Four because her credibility was attacked in connection with the
Perjury Counts. In short, a joint trial on Counts One through Six guarantees a mess. The Court
should therefore sever the Perjury Counts under Rule 14(a).
CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, the Court should sever the Perjury Counts (Counts Five
and Six) from the Mann Act Counts (Counts One through Four) and order that they be tried
separately, pursuant to Rules 8(a) and 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Dated: January 25, 2021
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EFTA00091891
Respectfully submitted,
s/ Jeffrey S. Pagliuca
Jeffrey S. Pagliuca (pro hac vice)
Laura A. Menninger
HADDON, MORGAN & FOREMAN P.C.
150 East 10th Avenue
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: 303-831-7364
Mark S. Cohen
Christian R. Everdell
COHEN & GRESSER LLP
800 Third Avenue
New York, NY 10022
Phone: 212-957-7600
Bobbi C. Sternheim
Law Offices of Bobbi C. Sternheim
33 West 19th Street - 4th Floor
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-243-1100
Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell
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EFTA00091892
Certificate of Service
I hereby certify that on January 25, 2021, I electronically filed the foregoing
Memorandum of Ghislaine Maxwell in Support of Her Motion for a Severance of and Separate
Trial on Counts Five and Six of the Superseding Indictment with the Clerk of Court using the
CM/ECF system which will send notification of such filing to the following:
U.S. Attorney's Office, SDNY
One Saint Andrew's Plaza
New York NY 10(117
s/ Nicole Simmons
15
EFTA00091893
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| Filename | EFTA00091875.pdf |
| File Size | 1051.0 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 85.0% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 30,371 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-11T10:33:21.695133 |