By RNZ
Ghislaine Maxwell, the long time partner of late financier Jeffrey Epstein, on Friday (United States time) powerfully denied charges she lured minor women for him to sexually abuse and said she is worthy of bail, citing the risk she might contract the coronavirus in prison.
Maxwell, 58, filed her request in the United States District Court in Manhattan, eight days after being jailed in New Hampshire, where authorities said she had been hiding at a vast property she bought while shielding her identity.
A spokesman for Performing US Lawyer Audrey Strauss in Manhattan declined to comment.
Maxwell has been housed considering that Monday at the Metropolitan Detention Centre, a Brooklyn jail.
She said her detention there put her at “substantial danger” of contracting the coronavirus, after 55 inmates and staff had actually evaluated positive for Covid-19 through June 30.
Maxwell faces six criminal charges, including 4 related to transferring minors for prohibited sexual acts, and two for perjury in depositions about her role in Epstein’s abuses.
In Friday’s filing, Maxwell said she “strongly denies the charges” and plans to fight them.
Her arraignment is on July 14, and prosecutors desire her apprehended until trial.
Maxwell is the child of the late British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell.
Epstein was found hanged last August in prison at age 66, in a death ruled a suicide.
He had actually socialised throughout the years with many popular individuals including Britain’s Prince Andrew, US President Donald Trump and previous President Expense Clinton.
Media crush
Maxwell’s proposed bail bundle includes a $US5 million (NZ$ 7.6 m) bond, the surrender of her passports, “stringent” travel limitations, and house detention with electronic tracking.
She stated she would continue requiring security guards to guarantee her safety.
Maxwell also maintained she was not a flight danger, claiming to have remained in the United States since Epstein’s arrest.
She “did not run away, but rather left the public eye, for the totally reasonable function of securing herself and those near to her from the crush of media and online attention and its extremely real harms,” the filing said.
Friday’s filing also raised numerous legal difficulties to the indictment, consisting of that Epstein’s 2007 nonprosecution contract with the US government covered “any potential co-conspirators”.
In seeking Maxwell’s continued detention, prosecutors called her an “extreme risk” of flight because of the possible long prison term, her wealth, her numerous passports and citizenships, and her having “absolutely no factor to remain”. – RNZ
Leave a Reply