Woman who allegedly procured girls for Epstein is arrested
MIAMI — Jeffrey Epstein’s reputed longtime madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, has been arrested by federal authorities and is in the custody of federal authorities. She was detained at 8:30 Thursday morning in a residence in the small town of Bradford, New Hampshire.
The British socialite allegedly helped procure girls for the financier, who died in August 2019 in a jail cell after being arrested himself a month earlier on federal charges of sex trafficking.
Maxwell has been charged with four counts of sex trafficking a minor and two counts of perjury, according to the federal indictment.
The charges involve three girls who were under the age of 18 when Maxwell allegedly recruited them to engage in sexual acts with Epstein from the years of 1994 through 1997. According to the charges, Maxwell “groomed” the three girls for Epstein and, in one case, took part in the sexual activity. The girls were allegedly abused at multiple locations, including Epstein’s New York mansion, his estate in
Palm Beach, his ranch in New Mexico and Maxwell’s personal residence in London.
“Maxwell’s presence as an adult woman helped put the victims at ease as Maxwell and Epstein intended,” said Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney, in announcing the charges against Maxwell at a Thursday news conference.
Speaking about the perjury charges brought against Maxwell, based on statements Maxwell made in 2016 in a civil suit brought by one of Epstein and Maxwell’s alleged victims, Strauss said, “Maxwell lied because the truth, as alleged, was almost unspeakable.”
Federal prosecutors asked that Maxwell be held without bail, saying she “poses an extreme risk of flight.”
“Maxwell has three passports, large sums of money, extensive international connections, and absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence,” prosecutors wrote in a filing Thursday.
Maxwell made an appearance by video before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Johnstone in New Hampshire Thursday afternoon and is being transferred by the U.S. Marshals Service to New York, where she will face a hearing on the government’s request to deny her bail.
Before the call started, a woman with her British accent could be heard sobbing on the line saying, “I don’t understand, I don’t understand.”
The Miami Herald asked Maxwell’s attorney, Larry Vogelman, whether the voice had been Maxwell’s and he said that he had not heard the voice and that his client had no comment on the charges and the government’s request for her to be held without bail.
The Maxwell indictment comes nearly a year after the new charges were filed against Epstein for alleged crimes between 2002 and 2006
“This case against Ghislaine Maxwell is the prequel to the earlier case we brought against Jeffrey Epstein,” Strauss said.
Epstein’s charges were driven in part by the Miami Herald’s Perversion of Justice series, which detailed Epstein’s lenient sentence for sex charges a decade earlier. Alexander Acosta was U.S. attorney for Southern Florida at the time of the initial sentence, personally approving a non-prosecution agreement that ensured Epstein was spared the prospect of federal prison. Epstein served a short stint in the Palm Beach County jail.