Epstein friend accused of recruiting girls for sex arrested

By JIM MUSTIAN and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press
The FBI says a British socialite has been arrested on charges she helped recruit three girls to have sex with financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was accused of sexually assaulting dozens of girls and women over many years. An indictment unsealed Thursday said Ghislaine Maxwell facilitated Epstein’s crimes by “helping Epstein to recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse” girls as young as 14. It also said she participated in the sexual abuse. Epstein killed himself in a federal detention center in New York last summer while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Maxwell was accused by many women of recruiting them to give Epstein massages, during which they were pressured into sex. Maxwell has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and called some of the claims against her “absolute rubbish.”