‘Out’rage at Ghis’ bail bid
Epstein vics will plead case to judge
Some of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims will urge a judge to keep his former lover, Ghislaine Maxwell, locked up pending trial as an alleged accomplice in his pedophilia scheme, authorities said Monday.
A lawyer for one of Epstein’s victims has asked prosecutors to tell Manhattan federal Judge Alison Nathan that “their client opposes bail for the defendant” during a planned videoconference hearing Tuesday afternoon, according to court papers.
“The Government also expects that one or more victims will exercise their right to be heard at the July 14, 2020, hearing in this matter, and will urge the Court not to grant bail,” prosecutors wrote.
And “strong evidence” against the disgraced British socialite could get “even stronger” based on potential new information that’s surfaced since her arrest, the court filing said.
The FBI and the Manhattan US Attorney’s office have “been in contact with additional individuals who have expressed a willingness to provide information regarding the defendant,” the filing says.
Maxwell, 53, was busted July 2 on an indictment alleging that she recruited underage girls — some young as 14 — so they could be sexually abused by Epstein, who hanged himself in a Manhattan lockup following his arrest last year.
She’s seeking to be released on a $5 million bond.
In Monday’s filing, prosecutors said a private security guard present when Maxwell was nabbed told FBI agents that her brother had hired a company “staffed with former members of the British military” who worked there “in rotations.”
Maxwell “provided one of the guards with a credit card in the same name as the LLC” that paid more than $1 million in December for the New Hampshire property where she was found laying low, prosecutors wrote.
Maxwell is also under investigation by the US Virgin Islands. The Caribbean territory gave notice of its investigation in a court filing Friday in which it seeks to intervene in a lawsuit she filed against Epstein’s estate.
The island’s Department of Justice “is investigating Maxwell’s participation in Epstein’s criminal sex trafficking and sexual abuse conduct,” according to the July 10 filing.