Thread by @KlasfeldReports

Good morning from New York.

The Ghislaine Maxwell sex trafficking case is a trial a quarter of a century in the making. Here's a place for getting caught up on all of that, quickly.

Follow this feed, as it unfolds, @lawcrimenews lawandcrime.com/live-trials/gh…

We begin.

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan: Is the government ready to proceed to trial today?
A: Yes, your honor.

Q: Ms. Sternheim? [Maxwell's lawyer]
She replies in the affirmative.

Proceedings start today with the remainder of jury selection.

Of the 600 original candidates, 58 remain, and we're heading to a panel of 12 jurors and some alternates.

Helpful for reporters:

Judge Nathan asks Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer Jeffrey Pagliuca how to pronounce his name.

Pagliuca: "The 'g' is silent, like lasagna."

Proceedings are a bit stalled, as the court is waiting on three potential jurors not accounted for on the security line, per judge.

Judge Nathan asks the remaining potential jurors:

* Have they read, seen, heard or researched anything about the case during the holiday recess?

* Is there any reason that they cannot be a fair and impartial juror?

Only one raised hand in response to those questions: from Juror 87, a Manhattan resident who works for a private equity firm.

It's unclear to what question that hand was raised.

Juror 87 says that his co-workers spoke about the case and had "adamant" opinions. This juror disclosed being unable to cut them off.

Juror 87 is excused, without objection from the parties.

On Nov. 16, that juror said: "My only concern is, I guess given proximity to private equity and finance, that's my only concern."

Juror 87 elaborated then the concern was the "number of high-profile individuals [...in] finance generally who have been implicated in this case."

A jury has been selected.

The government expects its opening statement to be around 25 minutes.

Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer Bobbi Sternheim hopes to keep matters under an hour.

Post-jury selection drama:

One juror expressed a financial hardship, after being selected for jury duty. (Trial may stretch on well after the holidays.)

The other had a spouse surprise the juror with a vacation interfering with the trial.

The judge will try contacting the first juror's employer.

As to the second, a spouse surprised the juror with a vacation between Dec. 24 through 28. The trial is expected to be sitting "two of those days," the judge notes.

Look out for a profile of the anonymous jury coming soon, @LawCrimeNews, once that shake-up has been sorted out.

Judge Nathan says that the juror whose spouse announced a surprise trip doesn't know whether it could be moved.

The judge is inclined to move ahead regardless.

Judge Nathan: The supervisor for the juror expressing a financial hardship said she'd "check" whether paid leave could be extended.

You have 10 minutes, the judge said she replied.

Maxwell's lawyer said a "tsunami" of news coverage would make a fair trial impossible, but the jury knew little about the case.

One juror, who never heard of her, said of Epstein: “Billionaire who solicited prostitutes and underage girls.”

Profile: lawandcrime.com/live-trials/gh…

Note: The "tsunami" comment was made well before voir dire.

This is a developing story, based on what the jurors said during voir dire questioning.

The issues with the two jurors have been resolved. They will be sworn in before breaking for lunch.

This appears to be a diverse jury in terms of race, age and gender, and they are about to be sworn in now.

Via Stanford University: "Diverse Juries Make Better Decisions" sparq.stanford.edu/solutions/dive…

Clarification about the juror who generally knew about Epstein as a "billionaire":

When I asked ex-U.S. Attorney Berman years ago if Epstein was a billionaire, the prosecutor's reply was: "No comment."

Also, this juror had heard Maxwell was Epstein's "girlfriend."

The juror otherwise did not know about the allegations against her.

Another juror:

“I believe I was watching football & I just switched over & the news was on and I just, you know, heard that he committed suicide, & Ms. Maxwell name was mentioned briefly, and I just kept it &—went back to watching football. That's all I could really remember.”

I will be starting a new thread for the start of opening statements.

Connecting the two threads here:

https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1465395762368495622?s=20