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Maxwell Complains About U.S. Jail as Wexner Subpoenaed in Suit

Leslie Wexner Subpoenaed by Dershowitz in Epstein Accuser’s Suit

Ghislaine Maxwell, facing sex-trafficking charges of underage girls tied to her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, said she’s being held under “onerous” conditions at a federal jail, including weeks of extra scrutiny under suicide watch.

Maxwell is asking to be moved out of solitary confinement in a Brooklyn, New York, lockup and into the jail’s general population so she can prepare for trial. She was recently taken off suicide watch, according to her lawyer.

”Ms. Maxwell is being treated worse than other similarly situated pretrial detainees, which significantly impacts her ability to prepare a defense,” attorney Christian Everdell said in a letter Monday.

Also on Monday, Leslie Wexner, the billionaire founder of L Brands Inc., was revealed to be facing a demand for questioning by Alan Dershowitz in a court fight between the Harvard law professor and Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.

In Maxwell’s case, Everdell says she has been confined alone for the entire 36-day period she’s been at the jail since she arrived there July 6.

She “continues to be surveilled 24 hours a day by security cameras and by multiple prison guards,” Everdell wrote. “These prison guards constantly observe Ms. Maxwell and take notes on her every activity, including her phone conversations with defense counsel.”

Multiple Searches

Maxwell is also awakened every few hours each night and “forced to wear special clothing,” according to the letter. Maxwell’s cell is searched multiple times a day and she has been forced to undergo numerous body scans, Everdell wrote.

Epstein was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell last August in what was later ruled a suicide. He had earlier been placed on a suicide watch but was subsequently removed, and was supposed to be closely monitored by jail guards. Everdell said Maxwell is being mistreated “as a result of what occurred” with Epstein.

Separately, court papers made public Monday revealed that Wexner is fighting Dershowitz’s efforts to draw him into the Giuffre case. In her suit, Giuffre claims Epstein trafficked her for sex to a group of men, including the law professor, beginning when she was 16.

Giuffre sued Dershowitz for defamation after he publicly called her a liar. Dershowitz countersued, claiming Giuffre “hatched a plan to falsely accuse him of sex trafficking as part of a criminal attempt to extort a settlement from another party, namely Wexner.”

Epstein had a longstanding relationship with Wexner, managing his fortune for years. Wexner, 82, said last year that Epstein had deceived him and “misappropriated vast sums of money.”

Dershowitz now wants Wexner’s testimony as part of his case in the defamation lawsuit. Wexner’s lawyers are fighting back, saying their client doesn’t have any information “relevant to the purported conspiracy theory” Dershowitz has outlined.

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