<p>NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial will start in November on charges that she recruited teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse over a 10-year period, a judge said Tuesday.</p>
<p>Jury selection can occur in mid-November and opening statements will happen on Nov. 29, U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan wrote in an order.</p>
<p>The order was issued a day after prosecutors told the judge that both sides would be ready for trial in November, though defense lawyers preferred it begin on Nov. 8 while prosecutors wanted it to start on Nov. 29.</p>
<p>Nathan said jury selection can occur the week of Nov. 15.</p>
<p>The judge recently scrapped a July 12 trial date after <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-jeffrey-epstein-trials-manhattan-ghislaine-maxwell-9b716a3fe852bd4ff0e2ebe783f76390"> defense lawyers complained</a> that <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-jeffrey-epstein-indictments-manhattan-conspiracy-dc3644aa9f8d5621f282e70887e3e375">sex trafficking charges added in March </a> left them insufficient time to investigate the new charges and prepare for trial.</p>
<p>Maxwell, 59, has been jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since last July, when she was arrested at a New Hampshire estate. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/new-york-jeffrey-epstein-trials-ghislaine-maxwell-courts-008f2eded93630a1b2bdf72d3e855954">Nathan has denied bail three times,</a> twice rejecting a $28.5 million proposed package that would have required Maxwell to remain in a New York City dwelling with 24-hour armed guards.</p>
<p>Nathan said she believed Maxwell was a risk to flee despite the U.S. citizen’s claims that she was willing to renounce her citizenship in England and France to prove her willingness to appear for trial.</p>
<p>
<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ny-state-wire-trials-ghislaine-maxwell-05c7d66a0885da88021a908615c211ba">Maxwell has pleaded not guilty</a> to charges that she recruited teenage girls from 1994 to 2004 for Epstein to sexually abuse during encounters that sometimes were described as sexualized massages.</p>
<p>Prosecutors say their case hinges primarily on the testimony of four women who were abused, including two who say they were recruited when they were 14 years old.</p>
<p>Defense lawyers have challenged the charges on numerous grounds, though Nathan has rejected most of them. They have succeeded in severing perjury charges from those alleging sex abuse.</p>
<p>Epstein took his life in August 2019 in a federal Manhattan lockup as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.</p>
