Laura Menninger

INTELLIGENCE SUMMARY

Laura Menninger is a Colorado-based criminal defense attorney at the Denver firm Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, P.C. Her connection to the Epstein case is entirely in her professional capacity as lead defense counsel for Ghislaine Maxwell. She has no personal accountability in any wrongdoing related to the Epstein network. Menninger began representing Maxwell in 2015, when Virginia Giuffre filed a civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell in the Southern District of New York (Giuffre v. Maxwell, No. 15-cv-07433). In that case, Menninger filed multiple declarations on Maxwell's behalf, including a Declaration in Support of Maxwell's Response to Plaintiff's Motion to Compel and a Declaration in Support of Maxwell's Motion for Summary Judgment. The civil case settled in 2017. When Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 on federal sex trafficking charges, Menninger and her colleague Jeffrey Pagliuca were retained as Maxwell's lead criminal defense attorneys. During the 2021 federal trial in New York, Menninger took a prominent role, conducting cross-examinations of the prosecution's key accusers. She challenged accuser "Jane" on prior inconsistencies in her statements to FBI agents and reporters, questioned accuser Annie Farmer on whether Maxwell was actually present during alleged abuse, and raised questions about another accuser's professional background as an actress. Menninger also delivered the defense's closing argument, telling the jury that "Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein." Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts in December 2021, including sex trafficking a minor, and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Following Maxwell's conviction, Haddon, Morgan and Foreman filed a civil lawsuit on August 22, 2022, in Denver against Maxwell, her brother Kevin Maxwell, and her husband Scott Borgerson. The suit alleged that the firm was owed more than $878,000 in unpaid legal fees. According to the complaint, Kevin Maxwell had managed his sister's legal payments after her arrest and paid only a fraction of what was owed. The suit further alleged that Borgerson had formed an LLC to purchase real estate in an effort to shield Maxwell's assets from creditors, and that Kevin Maxwell had pressured the firm to continue working on appeal matters despite the outstanding balance. Menninger was identified as one of the two senior attorneys who led the defense work that generated those fees. In summary, Laura Menninger is a defense attorney whose role in the Epstein case is as legal representative for a convicted co-conspirator. She has no personal criminal exposure, is not a named subject of any investigation, and is not alleged to have participated in any underlying misconduct. Her firm's lawsuit against Maxwell concerns professional fee recovery.