Maxwell denied bail

Longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein has pleaded not guilty to charges that she helped procure young victims for a sex trafficking operation.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that she helped procure young victims for the disgraced financier’s child sex trafficking operation that began more than 25 years ago.

The British socialite’s arraignment in a Manhattan federal court, staged by video conference amid the threat of the persistent coronavirus, marked her first formal response to the criminal charges lodged against her.

Maxwell’s attorneys were set to argue for her release on a $5 million bond, secured by properties in the U.S. and Great Britain. But prosecutors said the package “amounts to little more than an unsecured bond” because some of the the property being pledged is outside American jurisdiction and “therefore is of no value.”

Maxwell was arrested and charged this month, nearly a year after Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in a New York federal detention center.

A federal grand jury in New York indicted Maxwell on perjury and conspiracy charges that accuse her of helping Epstein “recruit, groom, and ultimately abuse victims” between 1994 and 1997. Both allegedly knew the victims were under age 18 and as young as 14.

Since the arrest, investigators have talked to more witnesses who want to provide information about Maxwell.