Maxwell’s desperate £4m bid for freedom
Maxwell offers huge bail sum as she paints herself as victim of witch hunt
GHISLAINE Maxwell offered up a £4million bail package to be freed from jail – as she painted herself as the victim of a witch hunt and proclaimed her innocence last night.
The British socialite, who is accused of procuring girls as young as 14 for her friend American paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, said she intends to fight charges against her, saying she is ‘entitled to the presumption of innocence’.
Her comments come as scores of women have alleged they were recruited by her as teenagers – and then abused by financier Epstein. Some say they were trafficked around the world and passed around rich and powerful men.
Maxwell also introduced Epstein to Prince Andrew, who has been dragged into the controversy after he was accused of sleeping with teenager Virginia Roberts, who claims she was trafficked by Epstein and loaned out for sex.
In the bombshell bail document, filed to a New York court last night, Miss Maxwell claimed she had not had contact with the US billionaire for more than a decade – and accused prosecutors of ‘trying to substitute her for Epstein’.
She claimed she had spent recent months living in fear for herself, her family and her friends – and had received death threats. But the daughter of late British newspaper tycoon Robert also revealed her family are standing by her as she put up more than £2.9million in UK-based properties for her bail.
And in an attempt to convince prosecutors she is not a danger to children, she told of how she was a godmother and enjoyed close relationships with her nieces and nephews.
Breaking her silence after being arrested in an FBI raid on the US home she was hiding out in, in a 26-page filing from her lawwere yers, Maxwell depicted herself as a victim of an ‘open season’ by the press. The 58-year-old is currently being held in a grim New York jail ahead of a court appearance next week. Her lawyers hope their application will mean she can wait out her legal battle at home. They warned that by keeping her in jail, prosecutors were putting her at risk of contracting coronavirus, which could hamper any potential trial.
Victims of Epstein allege they abused over many years, with many claiming they were recruited by Maxwell. The investigation has been focused on Maxwell since Epstein took his own life while awaiting trial in a US jail last year.
But last night Maxwell hit back, with her team writing: ‘Sometimes the simplest point is the most critical one: Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein.’
She also accused American prosecutors of mounting a publicity campaign by detaining her to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Epstein’s arrest.
In the hope of being freed from jail, she said she would wear an electronic tag, give up her British, US and French passports and stay in New York.
Her family have also agreed to co-sign her bail applications.
And despite being branded a ‘flight risk’ by prosecutors, she claimed she had not left the US for a year. The document represents Maxwell’s fullest response to the allegations against her since her arrest last Thursday at a $1million mansion in New Hampshire. She stands accused of procuring girls for Epstein to sexually assault – and even taking part in the abuse herself.
The indictment identifies three victims covering the period 1994 to 1997, when she was reportedly Epstein’s girlfriend. She is being held at the grim Metropolitan
Detention Centre in Brooklyn and is due to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday via videolink, where a judge will decide on giving her bail.
In the document, Maxwell’s lawyers Mark Cohen and Jeff Pagliuca wrote: ‘Ms Maxwell vigorously denies the charges, intends to fight them, and is entitled to the presumption of innocence... she should be treated like any other defendant who comes before this Court, including as to bail’.
A catalogue of factors mean Maxwell should be freed, the first being that prosecutors could not show she was a ‘danger to the community’, they said. Six people, made up of friends and relatives who ‘continue to support her’ despite ‘unrelenting media attacks’, are willing to co- sign her bail. They have volunteered to assume responsibility for the ‘extremely large bond’ of £4million, which includes ‘stringent travel and physical restrictions’.
In their filing, her lawyers refuted the prosecution claim that Maxwell represents an ‘extreme’ flight risk.
The bail documents published last night repeatedly sought to paint her as a victim. The dossier states: ‘On August 10, 2019, Epstein died in federal custody, and the media focus quickly shifted to our client – wrongly trying to substitute her for Epstein – even though she’d had no contact with Epstein for more than a decade, had never been charged with a crime or been found liable in any civil litigation, and has always denied any allegations of claimed misconduct.’
The lawyers added: ‘The “open season” declared on Ms Maxwell after Epstein’s death has come with an even darker cost – she has been the target of alarming physical threats, even death threats, and has had to hire security guards to ensure her safety.’
Maxwell’s arrest marks a stunning fall from grace for a woman who was once feted by New York society and counted many highprofile British names as friends.
She was also close to Prince Andrew and introduced him to Epstein for a friendship which lasted at least 11 years. Miss Roberts claims she was forced to have sex with Andrew three times at Epstein’s bidding, allegations the Duke strenuously denies.
Last night Maxwell indicated she is also planning to contest the legal validity of the charges, arguing that a non-prosecution deal Epstein made back in 2007 with federal prosecutors in Florida bars her from going on trial.
‘She is not Epstein’
‘Target of death threats’