A prospective Ghislaine Maxwell juror was dismissed from the selection process Thursday because he met multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein while working in the financial industry years ago.
The prospective panelist, who was not identified in court, told Judge Alison Nathan that he works as an arbitrator and was introduced to Epstein by a colleague who was setting up an investment fund.
“Epstein was an investor in it,” the middle-aged man told Nathan. “He was one of the larger investors.”
He was introduced to Epstein by the colleague in the hallway of an office building. The entire interaction lasted about 30 seconds, he said.
The name of the fund and the year the introduction took place were not mentioned in court.
Nathan excused the man from the jury pool after he described the introduction.
He was the last prospective juror to be called during the voir dire process of jury selection, when Nathan quizzed each potential panelist on their ability to remain impartial during the trial.
Maxwell appeared in court during the process, which lasted more than two full days.
The jury of 12 jurors and 16 alternates is expected to be in put in place on Nov. 29 and openings in the trial are expected for later that day.
Maxwell is accused of procuring underage girls for Epstein to abuse from 1994 to 2004. She’s pleaded not guilty and has been locked up in a Brooklyn jail since her arrest in the summer of 2020.
Epstein died in a Lower Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.