JEFFREY WHOSTEIN?
Maxwell says she hadn’t seen perv in 10 years, seeks $5M bail
Jeffrey Epstein? Haven’t seen him in years!
Ghislaine Maxwell argued for $5 million bail Friday, claiming she’d wrongly replaced Jeffrey Epstein in the public eye after the multimillionaire perv hanged himself last year.
“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,” her attorney Mark Cohen wrote.
“Sometimes the simplest point is the most critical one: Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein.”
Filings introduced in a separate lawsuit brought by an Epstein accuser show that Maxwell swapped emails about legal advice with the sex offender in 2015.
Cohen claimed that Maxwell “maintained regular contact” with the federal government since the day after Epstein’s arrest. He disputed any allegation the British socialite had been in hiding or was a flight risk. Her low profile, he wrote, was due to intense media scrutiny and threats on her life that required she hire personal security.
“Ever since Epstein’s arrest, Ms. Maxwell has been at the center of a crushing onslaught of press articles, television specials, and social media posts painting her in the most damning light possible and prejudging her guilt. The sheer volume of media reporting mentioning Ms. Maxwell is staggering,” Cohen wrote.
“She has seen helicopters flying over her home and reporters hiding in the bushes.”
Maxwell, 58, seeks $5 million bail secured by six family members and friends, who are standing by her because they do not believe the allegations of perjury and enticement of minors to travel for sex in the mid-1990s as part of an alleged sex abuse “trap” she set with Epstein. Maxwell also offered to go into home confinement with electronic monitoring.
Prosecutors say Maxwell is worth more than $20 million.
Much of her application is devoted to the risk of catching coronavirus behind bars. Measures to prevent outbreaks also prevent her from preparing a defense, her attorney wrote. She’ll also argue that a controversial plea deal from 2007 protecting Epstein and his associates from charges applies to her.
“The government’s case is based primarily on the testimony of three individuals about events that allegedly occurred roughly 25 years ago between 1994 and 1997. It is inherently more difficult to prosecute cases relating to decades-old conduct. These issues further call into question the strength of the government’s case, and provide an independent basis justifying release on bail,” Cohen wrote.
A hearing on Maxwell’s request is scheduled for Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court. She’s currently held at MDC Brooklyn. Special protocols are in place at the troubled jail to prevent Maxwell from killing herself. The feds took away Maxwell’s clothes and bedsheets once she was in custody, an official familiar with the matter reportedly said. She’s wearing paper clothes while behind bars.