Thanksgiving, on the fourth Thursday in November, marks the start of America's holiday season: a time to celebrate the harvest and show gratitude for the good things in life.
On a sunny day in Manhattan this week, the streets were buzzing, the shops festooned with Christmas decorations, and restaurants and bars were doing a brisk trade as New York rebounded from lockdown restrictions.
But a few miles away at Brooklyn's grim Metropolitan Detention Centre, there were no lavish turkey dinners — and little to feel grateful about — for the fallen British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, 59, as she waited for her 'Trial of the Decade' to start on Monday.
She has spent the past 17 months in custody there in conditions described by her own brother as 'degrading' and 'amounting to torture', following her arrest in July 2020 over sex-trafficking allegations.
Soon she could be spending the rest of her life behind bars — unless she convinces a jury of her proclaimed innocence.
At Brooklyn's grim Metropolitan Detention Centre, the fallen British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured), 59, waits for her 'Trial of the Decade' to start on Monday
For her, the next six weeks, in a trial that will span her 60th birthday on Christmas Day, represents only terrifying uncertainty. It is the fight of her life.
As Maxwell contemplates her fate in the 6 ft x 9 ft cell that has been her home for more than 500 days, media organisations have been rolling out special reports to coincide with the start of the trial.
The New York Times has run a major investigation into the final days of Maxwell's paedophile ex-boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein, the billionaire who apparently killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting prosecution.
Up to 80 journalists are expected to arrive for the start of Maxwell's trial in courtroom 318 of the classically inspired Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
With only a handful of press seats available in the court itself, reporters, authors and documentary and film makers have been advised to queue well before 6am to ensure they get into the 'overflow' courts carrying a live feed of proceedings.
Maxwell faces six counts in this trial, including enticement of minors and sex trafficking of children. She denies all of the charges, which cover a period between 1994 and 2004 and carry jail sentences of up to 80 years.
In court papers, she revealed she has set aside an astonishing £5.2 million to pay her legal bills.
Her star-studded defence team includes a former federal prosecutor who helped bring down Sinaloa Cartel drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, a feat for which he was given a True American Hero Award, and another ex-federal prosecutor whose scalps include mob killer Thomas 'Tommy Karate' Pitera.
In the trial, prosecutors will focus on four women who say they were recruited by Maxwell as teenagers to be abused by Jeffrey Epstein (pictured in 2004)
They will be up against the formidable U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, with a team of prosecutors who have an impressive track record themselves for pulling off high-profile cases.
It promises to be a bitterly fought trial.
Prosecutors will focus on four women who say they were recruited by Maxwell as teenagers to be abused by Epstein, and who will come face to face with Maxwell in court.
According to a newly released court document, one of her accusers will detail a 'repugnant' sexual act that Epstein did to her.
The British woman, identified as Minor Victim 3, describes the moment as 'morally reprehensible'. Maxwell's lawyers claim there is a danger the jury may convict their client based on a 'moral judgment of sexual activity which was entirely legal'.
Minor Victim 3 met Epstein and Maxwell in 1994 when she was about 17 years old. According to the indictment, Maxwell 'groomed and befriended' the girl in London and arranged for 'multiple' sexualised massages with Epstein.
Maxwell's lawyers, in their filing, argue that the woman's evidence should be excluded because it could unfairly sway the jury, given she was over 16 — the age of consent in the UK, where the act is said to have taken place.
According to another recently released court document, Maxwell's legal team have objected to a sex toy called the 'Twin Torpedo' being used in evidence against her. It was seized during a 2005 raid on Epstein's house.
Prosecutors also plan to produce emails allegedly sent by Maxwell to at least two 'influential men', setting them up on dates with women.
Court filings claim the messages show Maxwell was 'using her ability to provide access to women as a form of social currency'. They allege she was 'eager to please' the men and wanted to 'ingratiate' herself with them by making connections with women.
In their response, Maxwell's lawyers said that if she was trying to 'ingratiate herself with a friend, so what?' The filing added that prosecutors have 'no evidence that she was not already well-established friends of many years with both of the men'.
Prosecutors have also said they intend to introduce up to six pages of Epstein's infamous 'Black Book' of contacts as 'compelling' evidence of Maxwell's guilt. They will claim the book was actually Maxwell's and will produce a witness who will testify to that effect.
The key part of the book will be a section called 'massage', as it features the names of the parents of some girls, prosecutors have said, and this indicates how young they
