New Jeffrey Epstein accuser comes forward following Ghislaine Maxwell arraignment
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A new Jeffrey Epstein accuser stepped forward following the arraignment of Ghislaine Maxwell, the former lover of the now-dead pedophile who allegedly groomed underaged girls for him to abuse.
“I think it’s incredibly vindicating,” the recent accuser, Danielle Bensky, 34, said of the case against Maxwell. “I think that after not having a trial for Epstein, I do believe that it’ll bring closure.”
Bensky, a professional dancer, was present at Manhattan federal court while Maxwell plead not guilty to the new sex-trafficking charges stacked onto her indictment last month. She spoke to the press following the Friday arraignment, saying that Maxwell’s case will help her and other victims find closure and healing.
Bensky says she was 18-years-old when she was abused by Epstein, but did not provide any further details of her abuse or say whether Maxwell was involved.
Bensky has a career as a dancer and is a former performer for Disney Cruise Line, according to her Facebook profile.
She said she was “too afraid” to watch Epstein during the hearings before he died from a reported self hanging.
“This is a new feeling for me to be there,” she said. “I do think it is hard to sit through it. It is painful. It’s good, too. It’s healing.”
During the arraignment, Maxwell faced a judge in person for the first time as lawyers determined when she will stand trial for the sex trafficking’s charges against her. Maxwell plead not guilty to the additional charges that were added to her indictment, and the timespan of the charges against her was increased from three years to a decade.
Her lawyers argued for an extension to the original July 12 trial date on account of the new charges. The judge did not make an immediate decision on the extension request, but did express that she wanted to avoid a long delay.
Maxwell has been in federal custody since her arrest last July at a $1 million New Hampshire estate, where her lawyers say she went to avoid the press following her association to the Jeffrey Epstein case. Prosecutors say she was deliberately concealing her whereabouts from authorities at the time.
Maxwell was the long-time girlfriend of Epstein, who is responsible for the serial sexual abuse of underaged girls over the last several decades. Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019, on charges of child sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, to which he plead guilty. Epstein died from an apparent suicide in August, 2019, leaving the public skeptical of the circumstances of his death.