Good morning. My name is Audrey Straws on the Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Today we announced charges against Glane Maxwell for helping Jeffery Epstein sexually exploit and abuse multiple minor girls from the period of 1994 through 1997. Maxwell has been taken into custody early this morning in New Hampshire and will be presented this afternoon before a magistrate judge in the District of New Hampshire. You'll recall that the indictment against Jeffrey MP's Epstein that we filed in July of 2019 charged Epstein with sexual abuse of young girls from 2000 and two from 2000 and five. This case against Glean Maxwell is the prequel to the earlier case that we brought against Jeffrey Epstein as alleged. Starting in 1994 until at least 1997. Maxwell I had a personal and professional relationship. Jeffrey Maxwell was among Epstein's closest associates and help him exploit girls who were as young as 14 years old. Maxwell played a critical role in helping Epstein toe identify a friend and groom minor victims for abuse. In some cases, Maxwell participated in the abuse herself as a late, Maxwell and Epstein had a method. Typically, they would befriend these young girls by asking them questions about their lives, pretending to be taking an interest in them. They would take them to the movies and treat them to shopping trips. Maxwell would encourage these young girls to accept offers from Epstein to pay for their travel and their education, making these young victims feel indebted to Jeffrey Epstein. After developing a report with victims, Maxwell then tried to normalize sexual abuse with a minor victim through a process known as grooming. For example, Maxwell would discuss sexual topics with the victim and undressed in front of the victim. For me, present for sex acts involving the minor victims and FC Maxwell's presence as an adult woman, help with the victims at ease. As Maxwell and Epstein intended, this grooming process left the minor victims susceptible the sexual abuse that abuse included sexualized massages during which the minor victim was fully or partially nude. The sexualized massages developed into sexual encounters for which Maxwell, in some instances, was present and participating. Maxwell have seen work together to entice these minor victims to travel to Epstein's residences, defected on the depicted on the other chart at the front of the room, his residence in New York City on the Upper East Side, as well as Palm Beach, Florida, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Some of the acts of abuse also took place in Maxwell's residents in London, England. In addition to allegedly enabling and participating in the sexual abuse of young victims, Maxwell compounded her crimes by repeatedly lying in 2016 when she was questioned under oath. And we have charged those lies into perjury counts. Max would lied because the truth as alleged was almost unspeakable. Maxwell enticed minor girls, got them to trust her, then delivered them into the trap that she and Epstein had set for them. She pretended to be a woman they could trust. All the while, she was setting him up to be sexually abused by Epstein and in some cases, by Maxwell herself. Today, after many years, Gullane Maxwell finally stands charged for her role in these crimes. These charges we announced today are the latest result of our investigation into Epstein and the people around him who facilitated his abuse of minor victims. That investigation remains ongoing. My office and the FBI remained committed to doing all within our ability to bring justice individuals who enabled, facilitated and participated in the acts of abuse. Combating the exploitation of Children is a priority of our office. We're committed to pursuing and prosecuting those who exploit and abuse minors in case and in this case, in every case. And to that end, I want to say to anyone who is watching or hears about this prosecution. If you believe you are a victim of Jeffrey F. 15 or Glane Maxwell or anyone else who helped them, regardless of when it occurred, or have information about the conduct alleged in the indictment unsealed today, please let us know you can reach the FBI and have access to victim and witness services by calling us at 1 800 Call FBI. To my left is William Three Knee, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's field office, and also to my left is Commissioner Dermot and Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison. I want to thank them and their teams for their dedication and professionalism in seeing this investigation through to the end. I also want to acknowledge and thank the career prosecutors of my office who are handling the investigation of prosecution of this case. Alex Ross Miller, Maureen Comey and Alison Mo. I want to also thank their chiefs, Russell Capone and Edward Discount the chiefs of the public Corruption unit. Finally, I wanted thank and commend the brave women who are willing to come forward decades after their abuse and tell us what happened to them, without whom these charges could not have been brought today, and we thank them for their courage. And we're proud, proud to stand here on their behalf. In bringing this case, I now want to invite up our good friend, assistant director Bill Sweeney. Thank you, Thank you, Audrey. Almost one year ago, when our officers stood before you and announced the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein, I stated that preserving the innocence of Children is among the most important responsibilities we carry his adults. Too often, adults in our society have turned a blind eye to the type of criminal behavior that we announced back then and announce again today. Villains in these outrageous crimes are the adult perpetrators, not the youth who are our neighbors, our students, vulnerable foster Children and teens seeking support. Today we announced the arrest of one of the villains in this investigation. Early this morning, the Lane Maxwell was arrested in Bradford, New Hampshire, by FBI special agents and NYPD detectives from the FBI. NYPD Crimes Against Children Task Force. Our team from New York was assisted by special agents assigned to our Boston Newark, New Haven and Albany Field offices. We've been discreetly keeping tabs on Maxwell's whereabouts as we worked this investigation, and more recently we learned she had slithered away to a gorgeous property in New Hampshire, continuing to live a life of privilege while her victims live with the trauma inflicted upon them. Years ago, we moved when we were ready and Miss Maxwell was arrested without incident. Like Epstein, Miss Maxwell chose to blatantly disregard the law and her responsibilities. An adult using whatever means she had at her disposal toe lower, vulnerable youth into behavior. They should never have been exposed and which creates lasting harm. We alleged that from at least 1994 through at least 1997 Miss Maxwell assisted Jeffery Epstein's abuse of minor girls by helping to recruit and Thais groom and abuse Children under the age of 18 she befriended the innocent, attempted to normalize sexual abuse and work to put victims at ease, aware the entire time of the abuse that would follow one question about her conduct. In 2016 we alleged Miss Maxwell lied under oath. I like to take a moment again to speak directly to the victims. There never was. Nor shall there be an excuse for the criminal behavior you were subjected to. We know that your quest for justice has been met with great disappointment and that reliving these events is traumatic. When we met you, we told you that in the eyes of the FBI, you come first. I would like to thank you for the trust you place in our investigative teams as we work to hold the adult perpetrators accountable for the many victims of other adult perpetrators who may be listening or get word of today's announcement. The example set by the women involved in this investigation has been a powerful one. They persevered against the rich and the connected, and they did so without a badge, a gun or a subpoena, and they stood together. I have no doubt the bravery exhibited by the women in this investigation has empowered others to speak up about the crimes that they have been subjected to. If you are listening today and or the victim of child sex trafficking, please call 1 800 Call FBI or contact US online at tips dot FBI dot gov. If you're an adult who believes a child or a teen is being exploited or believe a child or 18 has exhibited signs of exploitation, please contact law enforcement. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Website is a great resource. For information about the indicators of sex trafficking. Take a few minutes to educate yourself. Click on the issue section on that Web site. Take a moment to learn how to spot the vulnerable and protect them. The website is missing kids dot org's. Finally, I want to extend my six year thanks to the task force in New York, the leadership and the prosecutors off the Southern District of New York, you've quietly and professionally executed your mission. Is public servants advocating for the most vulnerable in society and holding perpetrators accountable, regardless of their perceived wealth, connections or the passage of time? Thank you for putting the victims first, I'm gonna turn it over to Commissioner Shake after doing everyone or drink. Bill, Thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. And I like Oh, really? Their words. In my view, we're here for one reason today. One reason for the victims for the survivors of these heinous crimes. And I will remind everyone that although we're talking about periods of time 20 or close to 30 years in the past for the victims, the survivors of these sexual assaults, these crimes of us fresh today and the impact that they caused on their psyche as they were I want to take a special moment to thank Chief Rodney Harrison and the men and women of the New York City Police Department that worked on this case, hand in hand with Bill Sweeties. Special agents. Thank you. I'll take questions. Well, I think that, uh, Bill Sweeney has given you a sense of that, and I was being kept and information was being collected. And then the indictment was just recently voted and filed, and that was when we were able and prepared to move to arrest her. I'm not going to comment when anyone status in this investigation. But I will say that we would welcome Prince Andrew coming in to talk with us. We would like Toa have benefit of a statement. You know, I have no further comment beyond what I just said, which is that our doors remain open, at least as we've previously said. And we would welcome him coming in and giving us an opportunity to hear his statement. Why, no, you're We were working hard on this investigation this past year. It's not easy to put together a case that goes back that far, but it was not. There's nothing other than we did the investigation. We were ready at this time to proceed. Audrey. I couldn't hear you. Pleasure. I I'm not going to comment on that. Nothing coming that and that's who I will. I will not coming on. That's where we found her, Audrey this morning in making the decision to charge you reach back to an era in the mid nineties. Is there any physical evidence or is it nearly the word of the women again? I won't comment well beyond the scope of the indictment. You can read the indictment and see the kind of allegations we made and therefore the evidence that we looking forward to prove those you can kind of figure out. But I'm not going to comment on the specific evidence in the case Belka seen in the event that she goes to trouble, that I cannot speak to him. You just see one indictment covers this one period and the other cover the other. And whatever is not said is not something I can speak to. It's beyond the indictment. The fire. Not at all, not at all. We will be. We will be seeking detention on uh, you know, we are sensitive to that concern and certainly will be in dialogue with the Bureau of Prisons about it. Burglaries, I you This sometimes happens where they're perjury charges and people can go on from there and become cooperators, if that's what you're asking. So I'm not concerned about that. In the event that she were to become a cooperator, I think that way could deal with that. I Yeah, I am not going to speak to that. We're going to talk about that. Thank you.