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Ghislaine Maxwell was seen secretly dining with Epstein in 2016 despite claiming to not have met him since 2008

Canadian documentary filmmaker Barry Avrich claims he spotted the couple dining together at an upscale Italian restaurant, Bice Ristorante, Palm Beach just 4 years ago
PUBLISHED AUG 20, 2020
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Ghislaine Maxwell's claims that she had not had any contact with Jeffrey Epstein for a decade are false, said a renowned Canadian documentary filmmaker who claimed he spotted them dining together in Palm Beach just fours years ago. In an op-ed for the Daily Mail, Barry Avrich, known for critically-acclaimed films about the entertainment business such as 'The Last Mogul' and 'Glitter Palace,' said he saw the pair at an upscale Italian restaurant called the Bice Ristorante in December 2016 and that, at the time, he had no idea he was so close to the alleged "Bonnie and Clyde of child abuse."

"I was having lunch with my family at an upscale restaurant tucked away in one of the many alleys of the famed Worth Avenue when Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were shown a table that was far away from the usual Palm Beach A-listers," Avrich wrote. "Epstein did not want to be noticed nor did he acknowledge the rich and powerful in the room."

"The waiters knew what to bring him without him ordering and his conversation was hushed in an intimate way as he kept his head down," the filmmaker continued. "He was deeply tanned, casually dressed, and avoided the perquisite Palm Dress code of jungle chic or garish green or salmon-colored pants.."

Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, speaks to the media at a press conference to announce the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime girlfriend and accused accomplice of deceased accused sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein on July 02, 2020, in New York City. Maxwell, the British socialite, and daughter of Robert Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire on Thursday morning and will be charged by New York federal prosecutors with six counts in connection with the ongoing federal investigation into Epstein's accomplices (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Avrich said he was initially unsure who he was looking at but that his suspicions were quickly confirmed by a Maître D who he paid $20 for some information on the secretive couple and told him it was Epstein and "his girlfriend." He said he went back home that night to research Epstein further and was "astounded" and "shocked" to learn about how the multimillionaire financier had "used his political connections and vast wealth to essentially get a slap on the wrist for rape and the sexual abuse of minors." A conversation with Vanity Fair writer Vicky Ward, who had previously interviewed Epstein, gave him a further perspective of what he had come across, he said.

"If indeed it was Maxwell that Epstein was lunching with, as I believe it was, that would prove to be quite revelatory," Avrich wrote. "Her lawyers claimed in court that she had not been in contact with the disgraced financier in over 10 years."

Maxwell's lawyers had claimed she had not met Epstein for more than a decade (Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)

MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) previously reported how lawyers for Maxwell, who has been arrested and charged for her role in Epstein's sex-trafficking ring, sought her release from prison on a $5 million bail by claiming that she was innocent and that she had not had any contact with Epstein for over a decade. They argued that she had been the victim of a smear campaign from the media.

"Epstein died in federal custody, and the media focus quickly shifted to our client - wrongly trying to substitute her for Epstein - even though she'd had no contact with Epstein for more than a decade, had never been charged with a crime or been found liable in any civil litigation, and has always denied any allegations of claimed misconduct," her lawyer, Mark Cohen, wrote in the court filings.

"Sometimes the simplest point is the most critical one: Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein," he continued. "Ever since Epstein's arrest, Ms. Maxwell has been at the center of a crushing onslaught of press articles, television specials, and social media posts painting her in the most damning light possible and prejudging her guilt. The sheer volume of media reporting mentioning Ms. Maxwell is staggering."

The application for bail was denied by a federal judge, with Maxwell still behind bars facing decades in prison on charges of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and two counts of perjury.

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