On Wednesday, Janine Gill, who is the HR Director of ex-President Donald Trump‘s Mar-a-Lago resort, was called to testify at Ghislaine Maxwell‘s child sex-trafficking trial.
Along with accusations of sex-trafficking underage girls with late financier Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell has been accused of sexually abusing them herself and lying in a deposition with prosecutors. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Gill has worked at Mar-a-Lago for 15 years and was called to the stand to bolster the account of a previous witness in the case.
The witness, Juan Alessi, who worked at Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, testified earlier that Virginia Giuffre, then known as Virginia Roberts, would spend time at the mansion, and that she was picked up from Mar-a-Lago by Maxwell.
Giuffre, while a notable accuser of Epstein, has not been called as part of Maxwell’s trial, but potential details of her relationship with Maxwell and the Mar-a-Lago resort are being presented by the prosecution in the case. Gill testified that Mar-a-Lago hired a man named Sky Roberts as a maintenance worker in 2000, and the prosecution then provided a birth certificate confirming Roberts to be Giuffre’s father.
Maxwell’s additional perjury charges come from a claim that Maxwell lied in a deposition for one of Giuffre’s lawsuits. Those charges will be tried later.
While Gill didn’t mention Trump, her presence at the trial adds to a huge list of connections building between Trump, Maxwell and Epstein. An accuser who simply testified under the name “Kate” claimed that Epstein and Maxwell would namedrop Trump frequently. When questioned by reporters about Maxwell, Trump simply said that he wished her well.
According to the prosecution’s filings, there may still be more evidence to come that will incriminate “powerful men,” that were in Maxwell’s circles.
The prosecution of the trial rested its case this past Friday, with Maxwell slated to mount her defense when court proceedings resume on December 16.
