Annie Farmer takes the stand in Ghislaine Maxwell trial

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Jeffrey Epstein victim Annie Farmer took the witness stand on day ten of Ghislaine Maxwell‘s sex trafficking trial.

Farmer, whose older sister Maria was the first person to report Epstein and Maxwell’s alleged sexual abuse of underage girls in 1996, is the only accuser in the case to testify under her real name. 

She was initially expected to give evidence on Thursday, but the trial was paused after an attorney fell ill.

Farmer, now 42, described meeting the late pedophile in New York in 1995 when she was 16, and how he brought her to his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

It was there, Farmer said, that she met Maxwell and eventually became the victim of unwanted fondling and cuddling by the pair. 

She described how the two lavished her with gifts and offered to advance her studies in a plot to snare her in their alleged sex-trafficking ring.  

Wearing a white and black patterned top, black pants, and shoulder length blonde hair on Friday, Farmer stared down Maxwell as she entered the court looking over to her left to eyeball the accused. 

Farmer testified that she was living in Phoenix, Arizona with her mother and younger sister. Her older sister Maria Farmer, who is nine years older than her, was living in New York and working for Epstein.

In December 1995 Farmer flew to New York on a trip paid for by Epstein because money was ‘tight’ in their house and they couldn’t afford it.

Epstein also paid for a ticket for Farmer and her sister to see the Broadway show The Phantom of the Opera

Describing meeting Epstein at his home in New York, Farmer said: ‘He seemed very friendly and down to Earth’.

Epstein was dressed ‘casually’ while the sisters were ‘dressed up because it was a big deal and we were excited about seeing the production’.

Farmer said that Epstein’s home, a nine story property that was the largest private residence in Manhattan was ‘very grand’, especially as Maria’s apartment where they were staying was 500 sq ft.

She said that Epstein ‘asked me about my plans for after high school’ and said she should consider applying to UCLA as he had ‘connections’ there that could help her.

Epstein said that he could potentially help her with her education and they talked about the idea of him paying for her doing a trip abroad that could help with her college application.

Afterwards Epstein’s driver took them to see the play, Farmer said,

She said: ‘I was very excited. He was very friendly…he seemed very nice. I was excited and reassured’.

Farmer met Epstein for a second time on the same trip when she, Epstein and her sister went to see the film Five Monkeys (note: she appeared to mean the film 12 Monkeys which came out in 1995).

Farmer said: ‘Initially when the lights went down we watched the movie and at some point he reached over and puts his hand on the arm rest between our seats and started to reach for my hand and caressed my hand, interlocking his hand with mine and holding my hand’.

Farmer said he legs were crossed and Epstein ‘was rubbing the bottom of my shoe and rubbing my foot and my leg’.

She said: ‘I was very surprised. It was very surprised and anxious. I felt sick to my stomach. It was not something I was expecting. I noticed that when he integrated with my sister he’s stop doing that. When he was looking forward again he would return to touching me’.

Farmer said that she didn’t tell her sister because she was ‘very protective’ and she would have got ‘upset’.

In addition Epstein was her employer and she worried Maria ‘could lose her job’.

The jury were shown an entry from Farmer’s diary from January 7th 1996 in which she said that ‘the best night’ of her trip was when she ‘went to Jeff Epstein’s house and had champagne’ followed by The Phantom of the Opera.

She wrote that Epstein seemed ‘down to Earth’.

The jury were shown another diary entry from January 25th 1996 in which Farmer caught up on recent events, including more about her trip to New York.

She recounted the incident while watching the film and said it was ‘a little weird, one of those things that’s hard to explain’.

She wrote that Epstein reached for her hand and they were ‘holding hands’ and that he ‘rubbed my arm’.

Farmer wrote: ‘It gave me a weird feeling but it wasn’t that weird’, adding that it was ‘probably normal’.

Farmer wrote that it made her feel ‘mad’ because Epstein stopped doing it whenever he was talking to Maria.

She wrote that Maria ‘worships’ Epstein who she thought was a ‘relaxed guy and likes to flirt or was being fatherly’.

Looking back at her diary now, Farmer said she appeared to be ‘conflicted’ at the time because she knew what had happened was ‘not normal’.

Farmer stayed in touch with Epstein by phone and in Spring of 1996 she was invited to his ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico for the weekend.

She said that she was ‘not eager’ to go after what happened in New York.

Farmer said: ‘I had been told that Maxwell would be in New Mexico with Epstein so that made me feel more comfortable’

Farmer said she learned this from her mother.

She said she understood that Maxwell and Epstein were in a ‘romantic relationship’ so Epstein ‘couldn’t do anything while they were together’.

When Farmer arrived at the ranch having flown commercial and been picked up by Epstein’s driver, she recalled Maxwell as being ‘trim, attractive’ with short dark hair and a British accent.

Farmer observed Maxwell and Epstein being ‘very intimate with each other, touching each other’. Farmer thought they were in a relationship because of the ‘way they spoke and interacted’.

Farmer said that it seemed ‘unusual’ that a 16-year-old would be on the ranch alone with them, apart from staff, but she felt ‘special’ that they wanted to spend time with her.

Farmer was also conscious of the possibility of a foreign trip that Epstein said he could pay for and she couldn’t otherwise afford.

Maxwell began to talk to Farmer about her life, her school and her plans for the future, she told the jury.

The three of them went shopping and Maxwell and Epstein bought Farmer a pair of cowboy boots costing over $100 from a Western style store.

Farmer said that they seemed ‘very expensive’ and even though they were not the kind of thing she normally wore she accepted the gift.

On a trip to the movies to see Primal Fear things took a more disturbing turn and before the movie Farmer said she saw Epstein and Maxwell ‘being very playful with each other and grabbing each other’.

She saw Maxwell ‘wanted to pull Epstein’s pants down’ which seemed ‘odd’ to her.

Farmer said that kind of behavior was ‘something you expect from younger people’ than her.

During the film Epstein did the same thing as he did as before only this time it was more ‘blatant’. Farmer sat next to Epstein once again, she said.

Farmer said: ‘He right away began to hold my hand and caress it and rubbed my foot and my arm. It was for the majority of the movie’.

The difference this time was that Epstein didn’t stop when he was talking to Maxwell, Farmer said.

Later on Maxwell ‘wanted to show me how to rub his (Epstein’s) feet’ so they sat together in an area she called a ‘den’ inside the house.

Farmer said that Maxwell ‘instructed’ her on how to hold Epstein’s foot and where to press it.

Maxwell told her to ‘pull back his big toe’ and to press on a certain part of Epstein’s foot.

Epstein made ‘groaning noises’ and appeared to enjoy it, Farmer said.

Farmer said it left her feeling ‘very uncomfortable, I didn’t want to be touching his foot’.

Maxwell asked Farmer if she herself had had a massage and when she said no, Maxwell insisted upon giving her one.

They went to the room Farmer was staying in and Maxwell pulled out a fold-up massage table. Maxwell put a sheet on top and told Farmer to get on it.

Farmer said: ‘I was wearing nothing. She told me to get undressed and lay under the sheet and I did.

‘She started rubbing my body, rubbing my back and she’s making small talk and then at some point she had me roll over so I was laying on my back.

‘She pulled the sheet down and exposed my breasts and started rubbing on my chest and upper breasts’.

Prosecutor Lara Pomerantz asked what Farmer’s reaction was. She said: ‘When she pulled down the sheet I felt frozen because it didn’t make sense to me. I was surprised and I wanted so badly to get off of the table and have that massage be done’.

Asked who was in the room, Farmer said it was just Maxwell.

She said: ‘The door to the room was open and I was fearful, especially at that moment. I had this sense that Epstein could see me’.

She added that she did not remember anyone being in the door but she had this ‘sense’ that Epstein may be there

The next incident happened one morning when Epstein ‘suddenly opened my (bedroom) door and bounded into the room in a playful way saying he wanted a cuddle’, Farmer said.

She said: ‘He climbed into bed and lay behind me and reached his arms around and pressed his body against me’

Asked if Farmer wanted this, she said: ‘No’.

She said that she felt ‘isolated’ and if I could ‘get through this it would be fine’. She said: ‘I didn’t say anything’ while it was happening.

He said: ‘He had his arms around me and I felt frozen’.

Farmer said that she had to go to the bathroom as an ‘excuse’ to get out there, went to the toilet and shut the door.

She said: ‘I can’t remember how long I was in there. I wanted to be in there long enough that this situation would be over’.

By that point Farmer said that she ‘just wanted the weekend to be over’.

She said that she thought she was going there because of Maxwell and Epstein’s interest in her academic pursuits.

In fact she now realized they had a ‘very different interest in me’. Farmer said she felt ‘extremely disoriented and I wanted to be done with it’.

After returning home she told her mother briefly that something unpleasant had happened but did not tell her the details.

Farmer spoke to a reporter from Vanity Fair in 2002 about her experience with Epstein but her account did not make it into the final version of the story – Epstein reportedly personally spoke to former editor Graydon Carter.

She did speak to law enforcement in 2007 and again in 2019 after Epstein died.

Farmer kept the boots that Maxwell and Epstein gave her because she wanted to ‘reclaim’ them for herself.

She said she was conflicted about telling her story because it was ‘shameful’ but at some point she felt ‘compelled’ to speak out.

She wanted ‘accountability’ for what happened and to stop Maxwell and Epstein from doing it again.            

Asked by the prosecution if she had any financial stake in the outcome of the trial she answered no.

Under cross-examination by Maxwell’s lead defense attorney Laura Menninger, Farmer testified that in 2019 she sued Epstein and Maxwell and participated in the Epstein victims compensation fund. She was awarded $1.5 million. 

Farmer was asked by Menninger if Maxwell had any role in her travel to New York. Farmer said she did not, Epstein purchased her plane ticket.

Menninger then questioned Farmer about sexual activity in New York, establishing that that there was no sexual activity in Epstein’s New York home.

Menninger: ‘No one showed you any vibrators, massagers or anything like that in that home?’

Farmer: ‘No.’   

Menninger then switched her line of questioning to what took place at the New Mexico ranch, asking her about remembering a cook at the ranch, which she did not recall. 

Menninger: ‘You mentioned the boots. But on the trip you spent a significant amount of time horseback riding.’

Farmer: ‘Is that a question?’ 

Menninger: ‘You told the FBI that in 2006, right?’

Farmer: ‘Yes.’ 

Menninger: ‘Are these the boots?’ 

Farmer: ‘Yes.’

At that point Menninger asked that the books are admitted into evidence.

Menninger: ‘You decided to wear the boots, even when you knew they were evidence. You wore them frequently?’ 

Farmer: ‘I didn’t wear them to work. I wore them when I was two-stepping.’

Menninger: ‘So you wore the boots Jeffrey Epstein gave you when you danced.’

Menninger switched gears again: ‘In the movie theater there was no touching of your genitalia or private parts, was there?’

Farmer: ‘No.’

Menninger continued: ‘And you said you were naked for the full body massage. 

‘But you only told the journalist you had no bra on … in 2019 you were unsure if you had your underwear on,’ she said prompting an objection from the prosecution.  

‘You do not recall Jeffrey Epstein pushing an erect penis into your back, do you?’ then asked.

Farmer: ‘I do not recall that.’  

Menninger: ‘You told your mother that you were not raped or sexually abused, right?’ 

Farmer: ‘I said I was not raped.’

‘So you told the Epstein Victims Compensation Fund that the hand-holding in movie theaters was sexual abuse?’ Menninger asked. 

Farmer replied that she had told the fund ‘in detail what happened.’ 

‘But you checked the box, New York. So you think hand holding is sexual abuse?’ the attorney pressed. 

Menninger also pointed out that in a her application for the victims compensation fund, Farmer said that Maxwell groped’ her breasts but did not use that word in her testimony.

Farmer said: ‘I don’t see how that’s a significant difference. Rubbed, groped, massaged.’ 

The defense attorney then went on to ask Farmer about the law firm representing her, Boies Schiller. 

‘Do you know how much that firm has made in connection with representing Epstein accusers?’ she asked Farmer, prompting an objection from the judge. 

On redirect, prosecutor Lara Pomerantz asked why the movie Primal Fear stuck in her head.

Farmer said there was a ‘theme of sexual abuse and sexual misconduct’.

Recounting the incident with Epstein in bed again, Farmer said that he ‘crawled into bed with me’ and then pushed his body against hers.

Asked what she thought was the nature of her sexual experience with Maxwell and Epstein, Farmer said: ‘I think this was all a pattern of them working on confusing my boundaries and making me question myself about what was right and what was not right with the ultimate goal of sexually abusing me.’ 

After Maxwell’s arrest last July, Farmer gave an emotional statement to a Manhattan court about why she should not be granted bail. 

Farmer had described her first meeting with Epstein to the New York Times last year, revealing that a sweatpants-clad Epstein welcomed her into his home with champagne and conversation about her college plans. 

During her visit, she went with Epstein and her sister Maria to a movie, where the financier began rubbing her hand and lower leg.  

She wrote about the incident in a diary entry from January 1996, which reads: ‘It was one of those things that just gave me a weird feeling but wasn’t that weird + probably normal. 

‘The one thing that kind of weirded me out about it was he let go of my hand when he was talking to Maria.’

Epstein later invited Annie to visit his ranch in New Mexico for a weekend and she accepted, expecting that other students would be there as well.  

When she arrived and found it was only her, Epstein and Maxwell, the weekend took an uncomfortable turn. 

She said Epstein subjected her to more intimate touching, and that one morning he came into her room and got into her bed because he wanted to cuddle. 

She remembers Maxwell persuading her to give Epstein a foot massage and then teaching her how to do it. 

Maxwell also repeatedly asked her if she wanted a massage and wore her down until she finally undressed and got on a massage table, where Maxwell groped her bare chest, she claims. 

‘I don’t think there was any reason for her to be touching me that way,’ Annie said.

Epstein did not participate in the massage, but Annie sensed that he may have been watching the encounter.  

Maria has expressed guilt over having accidentally helped Maxwell and Epstein prey on her younger sister, who was 16 at the time. 

She mentioned that Annie was looking at colleges, and Epstein offered to fly the younger Farmer out to New York from Arizona.    

Maria, who is not a part of this case, was unaware of what went on with her sister at the New Mexico ranch until after her own abusive encounter with the pair. 

Around that time, the summer of 1996, Maria was focusing on her painting at Epstein’s estate in Ohio when he and Maxwell came to visit her. 

She recalls one night when Epstein asked her to give him a foot massage, saying that during the ‘brief and awkward’ encounter Epstein ‘groaned with what seemed like exaggerated pleasure, followed by a yelp of pain’.

Afterward he invited her to watch TV in his bed and Maxwell joined them, Maria said. 

The pair began to violently grope her, ‘rubbing her body, commenting on her features, and twisting her nipples to the point of bruising’, until she ran away and hid.  

Maria soon discovered that three nude photographs of Annie and their then-12-year-old sister, who had modeled for her paintings, had gone missing from the storage box where she kept them.  

During her desperate search for the intimate photos Maria called her art mentor, Eric Fischl, and told him about the disturbing incident with Maxwell and Epstein.  

‘I just kept telling Maria: ‘You’ve got to get out of there. You’ve got to get out of there,” Fischl told the Times more than two decades later.

The girls’ father Frank Farmer picked Maria up from the estate. 

Maria confided in Annie soon after and learned that she had similar experiences with Epstein and Maxwell. 

After Maria returned to New York she got a call from Maxwell, who threatened to burn all of her artwork and ruin her career.  

The call prompted Maria to file a report with the NYPD about the Ohio assault and the stolen art. 

Officers referred her to other agencies, including the FBI, because the assault was out of their jurisdiction, Maria said.  

She said she spoke with an FBI agent but received little support and was not told whether any action would be taken. 

Maria would go on to share her story with others in the art community who knew Epstein, but got the impression that none believed her.  

In 2003 she and Annie gave their story to a Vanity Fair reporter commissioned to write an article about Epstein’s finances and proclivity for young girls, but when it came out it had no mention of the Farmers. 

Years later that reporter, Vicky Ward, said the article went in a different direction because they couldn’t corroborate what the girls had said. 

Ward accused Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter of squashing the story under pressure from Epstein.  

Maxwell caught wind of the story and allegedly told Maria: ‘Better be careful and watch your back. I know you go to the West Side Highway all the time. While you’re out there, just be really careful because there are a lot of ways to die there.’

Maria eventually abandoned her dream of becoming an artist because of the influence Epstein and Maxwell had in the industry. 

She spent years in therapy trying to erase Epstein’s impact and even underwent breast reduction surgery because she was haunted by his and Maxwell’s comments about her chest.  

Annie fared better, going on to get her PhD and become a psychotherapist. But, of course, the abuse still haunted her. 

In 2006 the sisters were given new hope of justice when FBI agents contacted them during an investigation into allegations of underage sex abuse by Epstein in Florida.  

That investigation resulted in a sweetheart plea deal that landed Epstein in jail for just 13 months. 

The Farmers’ said the outcome of that case was ‘deeply demoralizing’. 

Everything resurfaced in 2018 when the Miami Herald published a report about the plea deal, sparking an onslaught of allegations that led to Epstein being charged again this summer. 

Hearing all of the new allegations caused Maria renewed pain as she wonders if she could have stopped him earlier by pushing her own story harder and louder.  

‘Every time I hear one of the girls tell their story, it devastates me,’ she said.