Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and longtime confidante of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested on the morning of 2 July in a quiet New Hampshire town and charged with facilitating Epstein’s alleged sexual exploitation and abuse of minor girls.

The arrest of Maxwell, nearly a year to the day after Epstein’s on related charges, marks the latest chapter in a lurid legal drama that for years has trailed Epstein and his associates. After Epstein’s death in custody last summer forced the government to end its prosecution of him, federal prosecutors now have another opportunity to lay bare what they describe as a yearslong sex-trafficking ring.