'Substitute camera' sketches Ghislaine Maxwell trial beats
ABC News
Elizabeth Williams was the eyes of the public throughout Ghislaine Maxwell's monthlong sex-trafficking trial
NEW YORK -- As Ghislaine Maxwell strode into the courtroom for the first day of her sex-trafficking trial, no photographer was allowed to catch it. Courtroom artist Elizabeth Williams, however, was at the ready and before the hour was up, the curtain-raising scene was transmitted to news outlets around the world.
Cameras are generally prohibited in federal court. And unlike disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — also drawn by Williams but much photographed going to and from his sex-abuse trial — Maxwell was still jailed during her trial, ferried each way out of sight from the press and public.
“I’m basically the substitute camera," Williams said, emphasizing that she's “not using artistic license to move anything around.”
Williams has been the public's eyes in courtrooms since 1980 and has drawn for The Associated Press since 2004, though the typical flurry of courthouse activity slowed during the coronavirus pandemic. Maxwell's was the first full trial Williams covered from the courtroom itself in the pandemic era, coming right on the heels of R. Kelly's own sex-trafficking trial over in Brooklyn federal court.
