Maxwell Arrives in New York for Hearing in Epstein Case
Ghislaine Maxwell Heads to New York for Potential Friday Hearing
(Bloomberg) -- Former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell is likely to be formally charged and enter a plea on July 14.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan on Monday proposed the hearing be by videoconference because of the coronavirus pandemic. Maxwell agreed to the remote hearing and the date in a letter to the judge late Monday.
Maxwell, who is being held in a federal jail in New York City, was arrested in New Hampshire on Thursday on charges including conspiracy and enticing minors to engage in sex. She is currently at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, said Justin Long, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Maxwell had rarely been seen in the past year since Epstein’s arrest on charges of sex trafficking in minor girls. In a brief hearing Thursday, she said she wouldn’t fight her move to New York.
In a letter to the court late Sunday, prosecutors and Maxwell’s lawyers proposed a schedule that included her submitting a bail request on Thursday and appearing at a hearing Friday. Maxwell was living in a million-dollar home in Bradford, New Hampshire, when she was arrested. Prosecutors say she is a flight risk and have said they will fight any bail proposal.
The Brooklyn jail has been criticized as having terrible conditions for its female detainees. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak called the conditions there “unconscionable” in 2016. In addition, it has had five inmates and six employees with confirmed cases of Covid-19, according to the lockup’s website.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, where the case is, responded to requests for comment.
Maxwell isn’t in the jail where Epstein was found dead last year, ruled a suicide. Guards at that facility, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, were fired for failing to check on Epstein as required.
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