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Ghislaine Maxwell denies introducing Prince Andrew to teen sex partners, in deposition transcripts

Redacted documents from Ghislaine Maxwell's 2016 deposition in a defamation lawsuit were made public Thursday, showing her angrily rejecting claims she introduced a teenage girl as a sex partner to a man believed to be Prince Andrew.

"Did you, as part of your duties in working for Jeffrey (Epstein), ever arrange for Virginia (Roberts Giuffre) to have sex with (name redacted)?," she was asked.

“Just for the record, I have never at any time, at any place, in any moment ever asked Virginia Roberts or whatever she is called now to have sex with anybody," Maxwell answers.

She denies she knows anything about who took a famous picture of Andrew with his arm around then 17-year-old Giuffre in her London townhouse, denies she and Epstein and Giuffre went to a London nightclub with the prince, and denies seeing Andrew going into a room alone with Giuffre in her home.

“Are we tallying all the lies?” Maxwell said at one point. “Her tissue of lies is extremely hard to pick apart what is true and what isn’t.”

The transcripts are of interviews lawyers conducted with Maxwell, the longtime associate of late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and were released after U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered them to be unsealed Tuesday.

Preska allowed the release after rejecting Maxwell's lawyers' arguments that they would jeopardize a fair criminal trial for Maxwell next July. Maxwell has been held without bail in New York since her July arrest on federal charges she procured underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 1997.

The depositions were taken as part of a lawsuit brought against Maxwell in 2015 by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, now 37, who had accused Maxwell of aiding Epstein in sex-trafficking underage girls, including Giuffre. When Maxwell denied Giuffre's claims and called her a liar, Giuffre sued. The lawsuit was settled in 2017 and then sealed.

The documents, which total more than 400 pages, include two days of depositions of Maxwell and related documents, along with the deposition transcript of an anonymous accuser.

Giuffre's lawyers have been pressing for release of the documents for months, hoping to increase pressure on Prince Andrew and Buckingham Palace into speaking to New York investigators and prosecutors pursuing Maxwell on the criminal charges.

Andrew and palace officials have for years "emphatically" denied all of the claims by Giuffre against the prince, and continue to say he knows nothing about the alleged illegal activities of his longtime friends, Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite-turned American citizen.

Andrew, the 60-year-old second son of Queen Elizabeth II, last year stepped away from his royal duties following what was widely perceived as a disastrous interview with the BBC about Epstein and Giuffre.

The deposition delves into Giuffre's 2001 trip to London when she was 17 years old, when she says she was first compelled by Epstein and Maxwell to have sex with Prince Andrew.

In the documents, Maxwell denies that Giuffre was on a trip to London with her and Epstein, saying, "I have no recollection whatsoever of her even being on the trip nor holding her passport."

Maxwell, 58, parried a long list of inquiries about Epstein’s sexual proclivities and her interactions with Giuffre and other young women, insisting she never saw the financier have sex with anybody.

“She is an absolute total liar and you all know she lied on multiple things and that is just one other disgusting thing she added,” Maxwell said, denying she had three-way sex with Epstein and Giuffre.

“I never saw any inappropriate underage activities with Jeffrey ever,” Maxwell said.

Maxwell also denies that (redacted) or Epstein ever told her they had sex with Giuffre. She denies knowing whether (redacted) ever visited Epstein on his island in the Virgin Islands.

Lawyers for Maxwell had argued that the documents should remain sealed, in part to protect her right to a fair trial on the charges she helped Epstein traffic and sexually abuse teenage girls in the 1990s. Both allegedly knew the victims were under age 18 and as young as 14, according to prosecutors in New York.

Her lawyers noted that portions of the transcripts relate to perjury charges in the indictment she faces. She has pleaded not guilty.

Maxwell was arrested and charged July 2, nearly a year after Epstein committed suicide while awaiting trial in a New York federal detention center. She has been incarcerated since her arrest and is being held without bond. If convicted, she could face up to 35 years in prison.

In 2008 in Florida, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting and procuring a person under age 18 for prostitution. He spent 13 months in jail, paid settlements to victims and remained a registered sex offender.

Contributing: Kevin Johnson USA TODAY, Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ghislaine Maxwell's deposition transcripts made public