Ghislaine Maxwell lodges $28.5m bail bid involving armed guards
Ghislaine Maxwell has lodged a $28.5m (£21.4m) bail bid that includes waiving her extradition rights and employing armed guards to protect her after receiving death threats, as her lawyers claimed she had been more “ruthlessly vilified” than the convicted sex offenders Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein.
The British socialite, 58, is being detained at the Metropolitan detention centre in Brooklyn on charges that she helped procure girls as young as 14 for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse in the mid-1990s, and of perjury.
Maxwell denies the charges. Her trial is scheduled to begin in July 2021, and she faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.
New documents lodged with the US district court in Manhattan reveal Maxwell has been married since 2016, and the proposed bail package partially consists of a $22.5m personal recognisance bond secured by $8m in property and $500,000 in cash, which, the papers said, represents all of Maxwell and her husband’s assets, including three homes.
Her husband is not named in the documents. The partially redacted court filings reveal that in 2016 Maxwell put the majority of her $20.2m assets into a trust controlled by her spouse, which was now worth $22.02m.
To support the bail application, her lawyers included a letter from Maxwell’s spouse. They said the letter told how she had been forced to leave her family and drop out of public view, not because she was evading law enforcement, but because of “the intense media frenzy and threats” following the arrest and death of Epstein, 66.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell’s lawyers said she maintained her innocence and was committed to defending herself. They said the media had “ruthlessly vilified her” in far more articles than had been written about Cosby and Weinstein after their arrests.
The lawyers added: “She wants nothing more than to remain in this country to fight the allegations against her, which are based on the uncorroborated testimony of a handful of witnesses about events that took place over 25 years ago.”
One unnamed individual, supporting the bail application, wrote: “Her love for … her husband was a principal reason that she stayed close by as possible while fighting for her innocence.” The letter continued: “When she moved, it was always and only due to fear of being discovered by the press or vigilantes – the fear was palpable.”
The individual added: “The only reason she was forced to find quiet places to be in all this time, is due to the howling mobs screaming for her scalp on Twitter and other social media outlets.
“She has never hid from the authorities and is frustrated that she never had the opportunity to talk to them personally to counteract all the lies pouring out in the media.”
Maxwell was arrested by the FBI on 2 July at her rural New Hampshire home, called Tuckedaway, which prosecutors say she used as a hideout and concealed her identity to buy.
She was denied bail in July after prosecutors argued she posed a substantial flight risk, saying she had opaque finances and citing transfers totalling more than $20m from 2007-2011 back and forth between her and Epstein’s accounts.
A financial report among the released court papers said these transfers were as a result of her position during those years as an officer of corporate entities relating to Epstein’s aircraft and air travel.
A security specialist, who is pledging $1m towards the bail package and would provide armed security if Maxwell was released, wrote that when the FBI approached to arrest her, she had retreated to a back room because she feared reporters had found her.
Seven close friends and family members also indicated they were willing to pledge $5m of their own assets.
Since being held in custody, her lawyers said, Maxwell had lost weight and suffered hair loss, been subjected to repeated and invasive searches, and lacked adequate protection from coronavirus, which had affected 80 inmates and staff. Jail officials have said her health is good and she is treated like other inmates.
Her bail application proposes she lives under home confinement in New York City with an acquaintance, with 24-hour security and electronic monitoring. By proposing to waive her extradition rights, she “could not seek refuge” in the UK or France where she holds citizenship, the documents said.
Parts of her application were redacted, with her lawyers saying this had been done to preserve the safety of her husband, friends, family and co-signers for her bonds.
A decision on the bail application will be made at a later date.
A spokesman for Audrey Strauss, the acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, declined to comment.