Ex-Epstein girlfriend in N.Y. jail
Bail hearing requested this week in Maxwell sex-abuse case
NEW YORK — Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell was transferred to New York on Monday to face charges that she recruited women and girls for him to sexually abuse, the Bureau of Prisons said.
Prosecutors have asked a judge to schedule a Friday court appearance in Manhattan federal court for Maxwell, 58, who was arrested last week at a $1 million estate she purchased in New Hampshire.
Maxwell, the daughter of the late British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, was the former girlfriend and longtime close associate of Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Maxwell has been indicted on multiple charges, including that she conspired to entice girls as young as 14 to engage in illegal sex acts with Epstein from 1994 through 1997.
Several of Epstein’s victims have described Maxwell as his chief enabler, recruiting and grooming young girls for abuse. She has denied wrongdoing and called claims against her “absolute rubbish.”
In a letter to a judge Sunday, prosecutors said they have communicated with Maxwell’s lawyer, Christian Everdell, who would like a Friday bail hearing at which she will be arraigned.
Prosecutors have said Maxwell “poses an extreme risk of flight.” She has three passports, is wealthy with lots of international connections, and has “absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence,” they wrote in a memo.
Maxwell is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The jail has had its share of troubles in recent years, but not the specter of Epstein’s suicide in Manhattan.
“Somebody made the conscious decision, ‘Let’s not house her where Epstein was housed,’” said Jack Donson, a former prison official.
Donson, who advises white-collar criminals on what to expect in prison, said the lockup on the Brooklyn waterfront is akin to the federal prison system’s version of a high-rise apartment building — highly secure, with elevators to move inmates from floor to floor, air-conditioned cells and limited room for recreation or other activities. It houses about 1,600 inmates.
Donson said he’s made frequent visits to the jail and observed staff acting “downright unprofessional,” yelling and cursing at inmates. The former warden, Cameron Lindsay, said it is “one of the most troubled” facilities in the federal prison system and had a “unique history of staff misconduct.”
A weeklong power failure at the jail in January 2019 sparked unrest among shivering inmates and drew concerns from a federal watchdog about the government’s bungled response. In March, the jail had the federal prison system’s first inmate to test positive for coronavirus, and the facility’s response to the disease led to an ongoing court battle over allegations that inmates were being put at serious risk.
Last month, an inmate died after correctional officers sprayed him with pepper spray, which has led to an investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general. In May, another inmate at the facility died.
The Bureau of Prisons has been the subject of intense scrutiny since Epstein took his own life, which Attorney General William Barr said was the result of the “perfect storm of screw-ups.”