Judging Freedom - Ghislaine Maxwell Lawyers Request New Trial After Juror Interviews

Episode Date: January 6, 2022

Lawyers representing convicted sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell asked a federal judge Wednesday to grant the British socialite a new trial after a juror told media outlets that sharing his experiences as a sexual-abuse victim influenced deliberations. Judge Napolitano breaks it all down. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Judging Freedom Maxwell case, you know that case. She's the British socialite who was the girlfriend, confidant, co-conspirator, whatever you want to call her, with Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of sex trafficking females who were minors to bring them to Epstein's various homes where they engaged in sexual activities that were unlawful because they were too young to consent. I'll tell you about the problem with the case, which is fascinating in just a minute. But I want to thank you. I want to thank you for watching these pop-ups.

I love them. And I know you guys too, because you've been writing to me. I love what you write. Even if you point out a mistake that I make, you know, I make mistakes. Even if you want to challenge what I say, even if you want to say something nice about me. And as much as the pop-ups, I love when you subscribe to Judging Freedom. And if you check that box that says receive notifications or something to that effect, you'll get a little ping when I'm about to pop up.

And you can get your little lesson from judge napolitano and whatever the law of the day is so please subscribe please continue uh to ask for the notifications and please continue to send your comments in my team and i read them and we love them all right here's what happened in the Ghislaine Maxwell case. She was convicted last week. In the past two days, one of the jurors who convicted her has been all over television. I won't give you this person's name. And in his television interviews, acknowledged that he himself was a victim of sexual abuse in his youth, that he revealed that to the rest of the jury and that

the rest of the jury was influenced by it. And then another juror came out and said that that juror too, I don't know the gender of the other juror, was a victim of sexual abuse and told it to the remaining jurors and that they were influenced in their thinking by the horrors that were endured by these two jurors. My heart goes out to anybody that is the victim of any kind of abuse, sexual or otherwise. But before you become a juror in a sexual abuse case, just like before you become a juror in any case, you either answer questions verbally under oath in the presence of the judge and the lawyers, or you answer those questions in writing under oath. In this case, these two jurors answered the questions in writing under oath, and they did not tell the judge and the lawyers that they were victims of sexual abuse. If they had truthfully answered those questions,

boom, they would have been out of the jury pool. The jury pool is the group of people from whom the 12 jurors and the four alternates are chosen. So you had two people on the jury who were victims of sexual abuse, who had a predisposition to convict, and who did not reveal this truthfully to the court. My God, what a nightmare for the prosecutors. Prosecutors know this is a nightmare. So when defense counsel wrote to Judge Allison Nathan, the United States District Court judge sitting in lower Manhattan, by the way, recently nominated by President Biden to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the intermediate appellate court right above her and right below the Supreme Court of the United States,

also sitting in Manhattan. The prosecutors wrote to Judge Nathan and said the defense counsel is right. You've got to look into this. So these two jurors, for better or for worse, will now be interrogated under oath in private by the judge in the presence of defense counsel and Ms. Maxwell, because the defendant is entitled to be present at every stage of the proceedings against her, even a stage that she has requested. And, of course, in the presence of prosecutors. What do I think? I think the conviction should be overturned and the government should begin negotiations for a plea agreement with her or the government should begin to try this case again. And I think the government should investigate these two jurors for lying because they signed under oath that they answered these questionnaires truthfully. One of them said,

I tore through the questionnaire. I didn't read the questions carefully. That doesn't wash. You send in your tax returns, you sign them, you are affirming to the accuracy of everything above your signature. You send in any form to the government, you sign it, you're affirming under oath that everything is truthful, including a jury questionnaire. So this is a break for Ms. Maxwell, a nightmare for the government, a heavy burden for the court, and they all know what they need to do. Judge Napolitano, judging freedom, another pop-up soon as the news breaks. We'll see you next time. You may even be able to graduate sooner than you think by demonstrating mastery of the material you know. Make 2025 the year you focus on your future. Learn more at wgu.edu.