Ghislaine Maxwell submitted another request to be released on bail as she awaits trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, this time proposing a $28.5 million bond.
Maxwell, 58, is being held at DMC Brooklyn, a federal detention center in New York. She faces a six-count indictment that includes charges of conspiracy and transporting minors to engage in criminal sexual activity and perjury. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Maxwell was denied a proposed $5 million bail earlier in 2020 after the New York judge overseeing the case ruled her “an unacceptable flight risk.”
“She has three passports, large sums of money, extensive international connections, and absolutely no reason to stay in the United States to face a potential significant term of incarceration,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe said. One of Maxwell’s passports is French, and France does not extradite citizens.
“Ms. Maxwell is proposing an expansive set of bail conditions that is more than adequate to address any concern regarding risk of flight and reasonably assure Ms. Maxwell’s presence in court,” her lawyers wrote in a Monday filing, according to Bloomberg.
The request was filed last week under seal. Since the request was filed, Maxwell’s lawyers have submitted letters to the court from more than a dozen of her family and friends urging the court to grant her pretrial release, according to ABC News.
“I have never witnessed anything close to inappropriate with Ghislaine; quite to the contrary, the Ghislaine I know is a wonderful and loving person,” wrote Maxwell’s husband, whose name remains redacted and whose existence was only revealed in filings related to her July arrest.
Since her detention, the accused Jeffrey Epstein conspirator has complained about the conditions of the New York prison. She said that her treatment there was particularly restrictive, considering Epstein’s death in another Bureau of Prisons facility, which was determined to be suicide. Maxwell claimed that guards check on her every 15 minutes at night with a flashlight to make sure she’s still alive.
Maxwell has requested a hearing on her bail proposal for Dec. 21. If U.S. District Court Judge Alison Nathan, before whom the bail request would appear, grants a release, Maxwell could be allowed to go home before Christmas.
