U.S. renews opposition to Ghislaine Maxwell getting bail in Epstein case
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell cannot be relied on to be freed on bail while facing charges she helped advance Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse, and deserves no “special therapy” because she would possibly perhaps contract COVID-19 in jail, U.S. prosecutors acknowledged on Monday.
FILE PHOTO: Audrey Strauss, Performing United States Attorney for the Southern District of Recent York speaks alongside William F. Sweeney Jr., Assistant Director-in-Payment of the Recent York Self-discipline of work, at a info conference asserting charges in opposition to Ghislaine Maxwell for her role within the sexual exploitation and abuse of juvenile ladies by Jeffrey Epstein in Recent York Metropolis, Recent York, U.S., July 2, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Say
Prosecutors entreated Maxwell’s persevered detention in some unspecified time in the future sooner than her scheduled arraignment on charges she helped the uninteresting financier recruit and lastly abuse ladies from 1994 to 1997, and lied about her role in depositions in 2016.
Maxwell is in federal custody at the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn. She modified into arrested on July 2 in Bradford, Recent Hampshire, where authorities acknowledged had been hiding out at a 156-acre (63-hectare) property she offered remaining December.
Lawyers for Maxwell entreated on Friday she be freed on $5 million bond, topic to home confinement with digital monitoring.
Nonetheless prosecutors acknowledged her wealth, just a few citizenships and being “expert at living in hiding” made her an “unprecedented” flight threat.
“The court will maintain to restful get the proposed bail equipment for what it is value: nothing,” prosecutors acknowledged.
Prosecutors also acknowledged Maxwell did no longer deserve favored therapy over detainees at the Brooklyn jail who, unlike her, maintain clinical prerequisites making COVID-19 a increased threat.
Maxwell faces up to 35 years in jail if convicted.
Epstein hung himself remaining Aug. 10 at age 66 in a Recent york jail, while expecting trial on charges he sexually exploited dozens of girls and ladies folks from 2002 to 2005.
In Friday’s filing, Maxwell’s attorneys acknowledged she had always denied being taking into account misconduct related to Epstein.
Additionally they acknowledged she modified into shielded by Epstein’s 2007 plea settlement with federal prosecutors in Miami, which covered “any doubtless co-conspirators.”
The Recent york prosecutors known as that claim “absurd,” asserting they weren’t sure by the settlement, and Maxwell’s indictment covered behavior from several years earlier.
Aged prosecutor Duncan Levin acknowledged Maxwell faced an uphill struggle for bail, citing public tension and “the extensive assortment of victims” allegedly harmed by Epstein.
Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware, and Karen Freifeld and Jonathan Stempel in Recent York; Modifying by Tom Brown