The April Memo

The Memo

The document is a 32-page prosecution memorandum from the U.S. Department of Justice, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The cover page carries the banner Privileged and Confidential — Attorney Work Product and below it the instruction Do Not Disseminate Outside of the SDNY USAO. The caption is United States v. Maxwell, 20 Cr. ___ ( ). The blank is where a court docket number would go once the indictment was filed. The date on the cover is April 10, 2020 EFTA02731168DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document.

The memo is the document the December 2019 memorandum said was coming. EFTA02731082, dated December 19, 2019, had stated that Maxwell's potential charges "will be further analyzed in a separate prosecution memorandum, which is expected to seek authorization to charge Maxwell with federal offenses for her role in facilitating the transport of minors for illegal sex acts" EFTA02731082, p1DOJEE, EFTA02731082 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. EFTA02731168 is that memorandum.

The authors signed it "/s [REDACTED]" on the final page, above the line Assistant United States Attorneys EFTA02731168, p31DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. The signatures are redacted in the indexed version. The addressee line is also redacted. What the memo asks for is not.

What It Sought

"This memorandum seeks authorization to charge GHISLAINE MAXWELL with one count of conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a), which prohibits the transportation of a minor for illegal sexual activity, and one count of conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. § 2422, which prohibits the enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sexual activity" EFTA02731168DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document.

Two counts. Both conspiracies, both charged under 18 U.S.C. § 371. Count One's object was § 2423(a); Count Two's object was § 2422. Each conspiracy count carried a statutory maximum of 5 years of imprisonment, with no mandatory minimum EFTA02731168, p13DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document.

The charged period on both counts was 1994 to 1997 EFTA02731168, p13DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. That window matters. The 2007 Non-Prosecution Agreement's scope-of-investigation clause was bounded at the other end: "any offenses that may have been committed by Epstein against the United States from in or around 2001 through in or around September 2007" EFTA00192983, p1DOJEE, EFTA00192983 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. The SDNY case against Maxwell was built on conduct that ended 4 years before the NPA's window began. The statute of limitations had been extended for sexual offenses against minors by a 1994 amendment to 18 U.S.C. § 3283 and revised again in 2003 to permit prosecution at any time during the lifetime of the minor victim EFTA02731168, p20DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. The 2020 indictment was reaching pre-NPA conduct through a statute written to allow it.

The Victim at the Center

The memo centers on a single named victim whose identity is redacted in the indexed version. The narrative establishes the facts the government intended to prove at trial. The victim had been born outside the United States and moved to the country with her family. She was approximately 14 years old when she first encountered Maxwell, sitting at a picnic table with friends, walking a dog past her EFTA02731168DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. Epstein followed. He introduced himself as a donor who gave scholarships to students, and asked the victim for her phone number [EFTA02731168, pp. 0–1].

Several weeks later, a call came from Epstein's office inviting the victim to his Palm Beach house for tea. The victim and her mother went. Epstein told the mother that he liked to mentor young talented individuals and gave scholarships. The mother encouraged her daughter to spend time with him EFTA02731168, p1DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. The visits became regular. Epstein paid the victim \$200 to \$300 per visit in cash, told her to give the money to her mother, and also paid for the victim's training in her field of interest.

The memo records the victim's characterization of the early months of this pattern: she came to believe, in retrospect, that Maxwell and Epstein were "grooming" her for sexual abuse EFTA02731168, p1DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document. The abuse itself began several months in, when the victim was alone with Epstein in the pool house.

That is the case the April memo was asking to charge. Maxwell's role, as the government intended to prove it, was not a bystander's. The memo identifies her as a participant in the grooming, a traveler with the victim across state lines, and a direct actor in at least one sexualized massage of the victim EFTA02731168, p12DOJEE, EFTA02731168 on Epstein Exposed, an alternative host for the same document.

What Came After

The April 10, 2020 memo is not the only Maxwell prosecution memorandum in the indexed record. It is the first of at least three. The second, dated April 28, 2020, is referenced inside the later superseding memo by date but has not been separately located under a clean EFTA identifier at time of publication; whatever it contained, it appears to have expanded the charging package from the 2 counts proposed on April 10 to the 6 counts of the original indictment actually returned. Maxwell was arrested on July 2, 2020.

The third indexed memo is EFTA02731226, 28 pages, dated March 14, 2021, captioned United States v. Maxwell, S2 20 Cr. 330 (AJN). It sought authorization for a superseding indictment expanding the charges to reach a further victim. That superseding indictment is the one under which Maxwell was tried in Manhattan in November and December 2021. The jury returned guilty verdicts on 5 of the 6 counts on December 29, 2021. She was sentenced on June 28, 2022 to 20 years of imprisonment.

The Gap the April Memo Closed

The 2007 Non-Prosecution Agreement extended federal immunity to Epstein and to his named co-conspirators for conduct in the 2001 to 2007 window. Maxwell was not named. Her conduct through the 1990s was not within the SDFL investigation's scope. When SDNY built a case around her in 2019 and 2020, it drew on victims and on a time period the NPA had never covered and therefore had never foreclosed.

The April memo is the clearest documentary illustration in the indexed record of what the NPA did not reach. It is the case that the other case (the one the NPA had resolved in September 2007) had not been built around. 12 years after the NPA was signed, and 8 months after Epstein's death, a separate U.S. Attorney's office in a separate district prosecuted the person the SDFL had not.

What the Record Does Not Show

The identity of the authors. The identity of the addressee (redacted). The identity of the central victim. The content of the April 28, 2020 follow-on memo, which appears to have expanded the charging package from 2 counts to 6 and whose EFTA identifier is not yet established. Whether any of the Section IV subjects A, B, or C of the December 2019 memo (EFTA02731082) were ever the subject of their own analogous separate prosecution memoranda. The internal correspondence between the December 2019 and April 2020 drafts.

Several Items Remain Open

The April 28, 2020 Maxwell prosecution memorandum, as a separately identified EFTA document. The analogous prosecution memoranda, if any, prepared by SDNY for the subjects of December-memo Section IV subsections A, B, and C. The original 6-count indictment (20 Cr. 330 (AJN)) filed July 2, 2020 as a public court record cross-referenced to these memos. The superseding indictment S2 20 Cr. 330 (AJN). The trial record and verdict form from December 2021. Those are the documents that extend this article into a full chronology of the SDNY prosecution.