Audrey Strauss

Background

Audrey Strauss has been associated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for decades, serving in various roles including senior attorney and Deputy U.S. Attorney. She became Acting U.S. Attorney in June 2020 after Geoffrey Berman was controversially removed by the Trump administration.

Maxwell’s Arrest

On July 2, 2020, Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested at a property in Bradford, New Hampshire, where she had been hiding. Strauss personally addressed the press conference announcing the arrest, stating: “We hope that providing some measure of justice to Epstein’s victims is not too late.”

Advancing the Prosecution

During Strauss’s tenure, the SDNY obtained a superseding indictment against Maxwell in March 2021 that added sex trafficking charges to the original four counts. This significantly strengthened the prosecution’s case.

Legacy

Strauss’s tenure overseeing the Maxwell case was widely seen as a pivotal moment in the Epstein accountability saga. The arrest and prosecution occurred after years in which prosecutors had effectively let Epstein off with a lenient state deal; the 2019 federal arrest and subsequent Maxwell prosecution represented a significantly different approach.