Relentless Pursuit

by Bradley J. Edwards

  It was June 2016 and I really wanted to meet with Maria in person. She was someone I had known about for many years and had tried to track down in the past. I had good reason to believe she had information on Ghislaine’s role in recruiting girls for Epstein. This type of information was becoming more crucial than ever, because it was at the center of Virginia’s defamation lawsuit against Ghislaine Maxwell.

  I called every number for Maria that I could find. I had my investigators call every number that they could find. Finally, Maria called me back and left me a message saying that she knew I was trying to reach her. I returned her call immediately. She started off by telling me that she had spoken with Vicky Ward from Vanity Fair a long time ago but her experience was not included in Ward’s story, which was devastating to her, and that she really didn’t know whether she should talk to me. She had already suffered more than she could handle from her experiences with Maxwell and Epstein. She didn’t know me, and she certainly didn’t trust me.

  Maria eventually agreed that she would talk to me, but only in person. She gave me her address in Paducah, Kentucky. This was a town and region of the country that I knew nothing about. I told her I would go there and spend as long as I needed for her to have the opportunity to tell me everything. By the end of the phone call we had built a rapport.

  Later that month I flew up to meet with her. To get there I had to fly to Nashville and drive over to Paducah. I stayed in the only hotel that I could find within ten miles of her house and planned to meet with her the next morning. By the time I arrived for our meeting, Maria had hundreds of photographs sprawled across her floor. She had also dug out her old diaries, telephone books, and Rolodexes. It looked like she might have spent the whole night before digging things out of boxes in her closet.

  We chatted for only a few minutes before she launched into everything that she thought I had come to Paducah to hear and see. Unlike other witnesses who were cagey and reluctant to share, Maria was grateful that I had come so far, and she was ready to tell me everything she knew. She had researched me before I arrived and knew about all the work that I had done to shed light on the case. She admired that I had given a voice to the victims of people whom she felt were the most evil human beings on the planet. I didn’t fully appreciate how much my commitment to seeing her in person meant to her until I understood her background and how Maxwell and Epstein had affected her life and her career.

  Additionally, she had been fearful about what Epstein might do to her when Vicky Ward had discovered her in 2002, and she still felt some of that worry now. When she decides to do something, Maria is one of these people who is all in. She either trusts you or she doesn’t. After Vanity Fair broke her trust, it took a long time for her to open up again. But she took a chance with me.

  She thinks fast. And talks fast. She’s an eccentric artist who certainly doesn’t think like a lawyer, which allowed her to share her whole narrative rather than only the specifics that a lawyer would need to know. Maria and I spent hours that day going through photos and other mementos she had collected from her time with Epstein and Maxwell.

  Maria was in her early twenties when she met New York socialite Eileen Guggenheim (unrelated to the Guggenheim Museum). Eileen recognized Maria’s extraordinary artistic abilities. While Maria was in art school, Eileen got her a job with her sister, Barbara Guggenheim, who is married to the successful entertainment lawyer Bert Fields. Maria was hired by Barbara and Bert to perform mundane tasks around their home in New York. Wanting to help her find a job in her chosen field, Burt or Eileen spoke to Epstein because he was known as an art aficionado who could no doubt advance Maria’s artistic career. Sure enough, Epstein called Maria and offered her a job at his mansion in New York City. Which, in turn, led to Maria’s introduction to Ghislaine. Maria told me all about her work with the duo and the impact that it had on her life.

  Relevant to my purposes, Maria had numerous examples of Ghislaine’s role in recruiting girls for Jeffrey. Even then, nearly ten years before the Palm Beach investigation, Epstein had an unquenchable appetite for young girls, and Ghislaine had a knack for finding them. Maria described how sometimes she would be riding in Ghislaine’s chauffeured car when Ghislaine saw a girl, stopped the car, got out, and lured her to Jeffrey. Other times, when Maria and Ghislaine would walk through Central Park, Ghislaine would approach a girl minding her business on a park bench and, within minutes, convince her to give up her phone number. All the girls came to the house under the false belief that this rich man was going to help them out or further their careers, whatever they might be.

  Maria was working on the ground floor of the mansion, checking contractors and visitors in and out of the property, with Maxwell hovering in the vicinity while different girls came in every day. There was more than one occasion when a young girl would show up in her high school uniform—Jeffrey’s favorite “look”—and go upstairs only to return sometime later in tears. When Maria asked Ghislaine why, she was typically told that Jeffrey was working as a model scout for Les Wexner, owner of Victoria’s Secret, and had probably just told that girl that she was not good enough to be hired by the company.

  As Maria became better acquainted with Jeffrey, his and Ghislaine’s promises about her career became more enticing. Epstein had many connections in the art world. Everyone who was anyone knew Epstein and Maxwell. They both constantly made it clear that they had a real ability to give opportunity to talented people such as Maria. They flew her to an art school in Santa Fe, during which time she visited the nearby Zorro Ranch—the twenty-one-thousand-square-foot New Mexico estate owned by Jeffrey Epstein sitting on nearly ten thousand acres of land.

  The more time Jeffrey and Ghislaine spent with Maria, the more they learned about her. At one point, Epstein became intrigued when he discovered that Maria had a sister named Annie ten years younger than she. He insisted on seeing pictures of her. Maria thought it was odd, but she adored her sister and wanted to help her. She regarded Annie, a young teen, as the most pure and beautiful person on the planet and, of course, described her as such. Now, twenty years later, here in Paducah with pictures strewn across the living room floor, she still described Annie that way.

  * * *

  Maria recounted how Jeffrey looked at the photos of Annie that she shared with him and asked what Annie’s plans were for her future. Maria said that Annie wanted to go to an Ivy League college but didn’t have the money and, despite her many talents, would likely never be able to do that. Epstein seized on this opportunity and in his best philanthropic voice told Maria that he could make that happen. But Annie would first need to come to New York so that he could meet her personally and vouch for her qualifications.

  Annie was fifteen when she was flown from her home in Arizona to New York City. She was driven from the airport to Maria’s apartment by Epstein’s driver and taken to see The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway with her big sister, courtesy of Epstein. The following day, Epstein made arrangements for the sisters to come to his mansion on East Seventy-First Street so he could meet Annie. He was his normal charming self, explaining matter-of-factly that he was willing to make all of Annie’s dreams come true. If she wanted to get into an Ivy League school, he could make it happen. And, in the meantime, he would pay for her to enter any education program she wanted, worldwide.

  He told Maria and Annie that he was going to go with them to see 12 Monkeys that night. The sisters sat in the movie theater with Jeffrey between them. Maria’s eyes stayed glued to the movie; she was giddy that her baby sister was with her in New York with the chance to be catapulted into everything that she deserved: an education and the type of career she was intelligent and beautiful enough to attain.

  They all left the movies together. Epstein had the girls dropped off alone at Maria’s apartment. Annie flew home the next day and Maria went back to work at Epstein’s house, where Jeffrey agreed with Maria about Annie’s special qualities. He told Maria to have Annie pick a program that she wanted to
attend that summer and he would pay for it. Annie picked a program in Thailand.

  Ghislaine contacted Annie’s mother and told her that before Annie could go to Thailand, the students that Epstein was putting through school were reporting to his home in New Mexico. Epstein’s assistants made arrangements for the now sixteen-year-old Annie to travel to New Mexico for what she believed would be a gathering of students her age to learn about the programs they were attending overseas.

  When she got there, Annie was picked up from the airport and driven to the 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch compound, where she was greeted by Ghislaine and taken into the house. Much to her surprise, she was the only student there. Before she could question why, Ghislaine and Jeffrey told her that they had a big day planned for her: they were taking her shopping. As it would any girl her age, this made her feel special.

  While in town near the ranch, Annie commented about a pair of cowboy boots that she saw in a store window. Ghislaine and Jeffrey took her to try them on. They bought her the boots, which she loved, before taking her back to the ranch. While out that day, Jeffrey periodically grabbed Annie’s hand and held on to it, rubbing it affectionately. This made Annie uncomfortable, but it wasn’t the first time it had happened. While she was in New York at the movie theater with Maria and Epstein, he had reached his hand over and quietly held hers during the second half of the movie.

  Annie had not told this to her sister. She thought she shouldn’t. This guy was her sister’s boss and she didn’t want Maria to be fired from her prestigious position. He was also helping Annie achieve the education that she wanted. But she did wonder about it. Was the hand hold to convey that he saw her as a friend? Was it done as a demonstration of the type of affection a mentor has for a talented kid? Or was this as weird as it felt? Regardless, his doing it again while out on the town in New Mexico caused Annie’s mind to race.

  Annie concluded that he was a very friendly older man who showed his affection for people in an odd but nonthreatening way. The first time had been more troubling to her because it was sneaky and in the dark and made her feel he didn’t want anyone else to know. This time, though, Ghislaine was there. Epstein was holding Annie’s hand in front of his girlfriend or wife or whatever she was. For that reason, she decided it could not possibly mean something bad. Besides, this was a necessary trip before Annie got to have the experience of a lifetime attending a summer program in Thailand—a stepping-stone in her life and an opportunity she could never have had otherwise.

  After they returned to the ranch with her new cowboy boots, Ghislaine told Annie to put them on and model them for Jeffrey. Jeffrey then told her that they looked really good and that she deserved a massage. She felt uncomfortable because Ghislaine made her get naked before covering her with a sheet. Ghislaine then massaged Annie herself. At one point, Ghislaine pulled the covers off Annie, exposing her breasts before beginning to massage them. When the massage was over, Annie stood up and realized that Jeffrey had been watching them the entire time.

  Annie went to sleep in her own bed and woke up to find Epstein lying in her bed under the covers, cuddling with her. She didn’t know what to do, but thankfully she was scheduled to leave later that day. She packed up her things. Before she left, Epstein and Maxwell told her that they couldn’t wait to see her again when she got back from Thailand.

  * * *

  Realizing that Maria was the witness I thought she was, I called the team at Boies Schiller Flexner from my hotel room near Paducah and told them that someone needed to come out and meet Maria to get a firsthand appreciation of her importance. David called me back and told me Stan was getting on a plane and would be there that night.

  We needed to make decisions on how we were going to prepare for this trial and how Maria fit into it. There had been this philosophy at the time that because the years that Maria was with Epstein did not overlap with Virginia’s, Maria could only be marginally relevant to Virginia’s case against Maxwell. (Maria’s Epstein interlude ended four years before Virginia’s began.) The rest of the team believed that because she was a twenty-five-year-old adult and not a minor at the time of her interactions with Epstein, and because Virginia had not known her, a court might not see her information as relevant to Virginia’s case. With what I had learned that day, I believed she was very important.

  Stan flew out that night and got a room in the cheap hotel. We spent the next day at Maria’s house, going through photos. By the end of the day, Stan appreciated how Maria’s knowledge was important to explaining how Ghislaine fit into the story. It was Ghislaine who interacted most with Maria. Maria described Ghislaine and Jeffrey as Bonnie and Clyde. It’s funny, several witnesses used that exact description. Maria could explain how there was nothing that Epstein did that Ghislaine didn’t know about; in fact, she personally facilitated almost every aspect of his life. Ghislaine was the main person bringing Epstein girls. Her specialty was making them feel comfortable before handing them off to Jeffrey. It was Ghislaine who’d dished out most of the pickup lines; in fact, she made most of them up herself. Ghislaine was also the one who had cozied up to Annie to make her feel special.

  During the summer of 1996, while Annie was in Thailand, Maria’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell took a major turn. Maria was sent by Epstein to live at Les Wexner’s home in New Albany, Ohio, just outside Columbus, so she could finish some artwork she had been contracted to do for the James Brooks movie As Good As It Gets. Maria’s younger brother had come from Kentucky to join her in the guesthouse on the Wexner complex, a sprawling property owned by the wealthiest man in Ohio and one of the richest people in the world. Ghislaine and Jeffrey flew from New York to Ohio to pay her a visit one day.

  Ghislaine called Maria into Ghislaine and Jeffrey’s bedroom and asked her to get onto the bed so they could talk. Jeffrey was lounging there watching television, so Maria, fully clothed, got into the large bed with the two of them and watched. Talking was not on the agenda. Ghislaine was the first to reach out and grab Maria’s breast, followed instantly by Epstein, who did the same. Maria panicked, jumped up, and ran out of Jeffrey’s room into the one where her little brother was sleeping. She called the local police, got no help, then called her father in Kentucky to drive to Ohio to pick her up.

  After a standoff at the gate of Wexner’s estate between Maria’s father and Wexner’s guards, Maria and her brother were finally permitted to leave.

  Back home in New York, Maria wasted no time calling the FBI and the New York City police to report the sexual assault by Epstein and Maxwell.

  Not long afterward, Maria told us she received a phone call from Ghislaine Maxwell, who said, “If you report us to the police again, I will have you killed.”

  After that telephone call, Ghislaine and Jeffrey worked together to besmirch Maria’s name in the art community in New York. With their connections, they easily managed to falsely discredit her and her work to the point that she was forced to leave the city. What’s more, taking Ghislaine’s threats to heart, Maria felt the need to go into hiding. The scenario was very similar to Virginia’s dramatic escape to Australia. Stan did not need to listen to Maria long in order to understand the significance of her story.

  That trip was really the beginning of my relationship with Stan. The way he asked questions of Maria and evaluated the evidence was impressive. It was very conversational. Before that trip, Stan and I had not spent much time talking beyond discussing the facts and strategy behind the various cases that had sprouted. I left Paducah impressed that David had sent someone as savvy as Stan to Kentucky, within hours, and even more impressed by Stan’s quick study of the situation.

  During our three-hour drive back to Tennessee, I learned that, like me, Stan had been a quarterback in high school. I loved that. I learned that he grew up in Dayton, Ohio, which had many cultural similarities to my hometown of Jacksonville. I liked that, too. He went to Harvard for undergrad and law school, then had his storied legal career highlighted by his years in the Just
ice Department, which naturally meant to me that he was brilliant. But what I really wanted was to understand why Stan was David Boies’s go-to guy. He seemed like David’s trusted secret agent, for lack of a better term. I came to see that Stan is like the character “the Wolf” from Pulp Fiction—he can handle any situation for anyone at any time.

  Stan has this diplomatic quality about him that makes him able to blend into any situation in any country, with very little background information at hand, and accumulate knowledge. I asked him if David had hired him out of the CIA to be his operative because of his former high-end government connections and knack for traveling around the world to handle mysterious business meetings.

  He said he and David had become friends while playing softball on Sundays in Bedford, New York. “I couldn’t pitch, and he couldn’t hit,” he said, “so when a game was over, we were pretty much left alone to talk to each other.”

  This sounded like a cover story to me. So I asked, “But are you in the CIA or are you not?” He laughed hard enough to make the question sound ridiculous and said no, he was not, but I’m sure he didn’t expect me to believe him. He then said, “If I’m a James Bond, I sure am a poor man’s version of him.” Which, of course, is exactly what a real James Bond would say. We both started laughing, and I honestly wasn’t sure if we were laughing because it was funny or true. I guess I still don’t know for sure. Either way, he has stuck to the softball story as the origin of his relationship with David Boies.