Ghislaine Maxwell should stay in jail, prosecutors argue
December 18, 2020
US prosecutors said Friday that Ghislaine Maxwell should remain in jail and urged a federal judge to reject her proposed $28.5 million (€23.3 million) bail package.
A former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell was charged in July of this year with luring underage girls into the late billionaire's circle, where he and his friends allegedly sexually abused them.
In August 2019, American financier Epstein killed himself in his prison cell as he awaited trial for the sex trafficking of minors. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to being an accomplice in those crimes.
In a bail application made public on December 14, Maxwell proposed living with electronic monitoring in a New York City residence and under a 24-hour guard.
'Extreme flight risk'
However, in a filing with the US District Court in Manhattan, prosecutors said the allegations against Maxwell are of an "incredibly serious" nature, the evidence against her is strong, and that she poses an "extreme flight risk."
The 58-year-old daughter of British media magnate Robert Maxwell, who died in 1991 when he fell overboard from his yacht, has been in a Brooklyn jail since July of this year.
Her trial is scheduled for July 2021. She faces up to 35 years behind bars if found guilty.