Ghislaine Maxwell argues bail, saying she’s ‘not Epstein’
Former associate of dead sex offender was arrested last week
New York — Ghislaine Maxwell argued for $5 million bail Friday, saying she had wrongly replaced Jeffrey Epstein in the public eye after the multimillionaire 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 that the British socialite had been in hiding. Her low profile, he wrote, was due to intense media scrutiny and threats on her life that required her to 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 seeks $ 5 million bail secured by family members, who are standing by her because they do not believe the allegations she enticed minors to travel for sex in the mid-1990s as part of an alleged sex abuse “trap” she set with Epstein.
Much of her application was devoted to the risk of catching coronavirus behind bars. Measures to prevent outbreaks also prevent her from preparing a defense, her attorney wrote.
A hearing on Maxwell’s request is scheduled for Tuesday in Manhattan Federal Court. She is being held at MDC Brooklyn.
Federal officials have put special protocols in place for her while she’s locked up, including giving her paper clothes so she doesn’t suffer the same fate as Epstein, who killed himself behind bars while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.