(Bloomberg) — Eva Andersson-Dubin, an ex-girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein called by Ghislaine Maxwell to testify at her sex-trafficking trial, told the jury she was comfortable with her own children’s relationship with the financier and that they even had a term of endearment for him.
Andersson-Dubin took the witness stand on Friday after the judge rejected the defense’s efforts to call a host of other witnesses, as the trial winds down.
An internist by training, she is the wife of former hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin. Dubin retired from running Engineers Gate in 2020, five months after a previously sealed deposition drew the billionaire into the scandal surrounding Epstein.
After Andersson-Dubin, in a black suit and horn-rimmed glasses, took the stand, defense lawyer Jeffrey Pagliuca questioned her about her family.
“Did your children get close to Mr. Epstein?” he asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“Were you and Mr. Dubin comfortable with the relationship Mr. Epstein had with your children?” he asked.
“Yes, we were,” said Andersson-Dubin, who went on to say that she and her family often traveled with Epstein on his private planes.
Pagliuca asked her if she ever saw “any inappropriate conduct between Mr. Epstein and teenage females.”
“I did not,” Andersson-Dubin said.
Uncle F
Pagliuca showed Andersson-Dubin photos Palm Beach police recovered from Epstein’s Florida estate after a 2008 search, including two of young girls with Epstein. She identified one photo of Epstein with her youngest daughter and a second with her eldest daughter.
The lawyer asked if she’d ever seen the photos before, prompting her to say both times, “I have never seen this photo before.”
“Did they have a nickname for Mr. Epstein?” he asked.
“They called him Uncle F,” she said.
A woman who said she had been Epstein’s “sex slave” years earlier claimed she’d been forced into an encounter with the Dubins. The couple called the allegations “demonstrably false.”
For Billionaire Glenn Dubin, Rough Run Keeps Getting Rougher
Setbacks to Defense
Earlier, at a hearing before the jury arrived in the Lower Manhattan courtroom, the defense lost a bid to question federal investigators about the steps the government took in its investigation of Epstein and Maxwell. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan denied its request to question an FBI agent about the agency’s investigation of the sex-trafficking scheme Maxwell is alleged to have helped lead.
Nathan told defense lawyer Christian Everdell that he couldn’t question the agent about why the government didn’t pursue certain tips about others involved in the alleged scheme.
Maxwell’s lawyers also got pushback when Everdell told the judge they hoped to continue its case on Monday. He said that would allow the defense to call a witness from the U.K. who could testify that Maxwell didn’t live in a London townhouse when the accuser known as Kate said she visited the British socialite there and that Maxwell forced her into a sexual encounter with Epstein.
‘Life Is on the Line’
“Our client’s life is on the line and we are given one day” to make our arguments, defense lawyer Laura Menninger told Nathan.
Prosecutor Maurene Comey said the defense had “an extraordinary amount of time” to prepare, after the government gave Maxwell’s lawyers notice that the U.S. would end its own case early, and that the defense had five business days to collect its witnesses. Nathan agreed.
“I have a rule,” the judge said, adding that the defense had ample time to prepare. “You call your next witness or you rest.” She said that “if the case closes today, it closes today.”
After the jury filed in, the defense called Jason Richards, an FBI agent who worked in Palm Beach and interviewed accuser Carolyn, in an effort to show that that her testimony contradicted a line in the FBI notes. Next came FBI agent Amanda Young, the case agent.
The case is U.S. v. Maxwell, 20-cr-00330, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
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