bloomberg | Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime friend of Jeffrey Epstein arrested
Thursday for helping him sexually abuse underage girls, could wind up in
the same jail where he committed suicide last year.
Maxwell,
58, was arrested early Thursday morning in New Hampshire and is set for
an afternoon hearing in federal court there. Federal prosecutors in
Manhattan, who are handling the case, are opposing bail and seeking to
have her held in custody before trial.
“We will be seeking detention,” Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey
Strauss in Manhattan said in a press conference announcing charges.
Prosecutors said Maxwell helped Epstein entice girls as young as 14 into
sex from 1994 through 1997, then lied about it under oath in 2016.
Prosecutors warn that Maxwell has a “strong incentive” to flee if
she’s not detained because she faces years in prison. “That risk is only
amplified by the defendant’s extensive international ties, her
citizenship in two foreign countries, her wealth, and her lack of
meaningful ties to the United States,”
they wrote in a detention memo. “In short, Maxwell has three passports,
large sums of money, extensive international connections, and
absolutely no reason to stay” in the U.S.
Back to New York
Unless
the judge in New Hampshire releases her on bail, Maxwell will either be
held overnight in a local jail there or transported immediately back to
New York, said Jack Donson, a consultant who formerly worked for the
federal Bureau of Prisons. In New York, she would likely be transferred
to one of two federal lockups, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in
Lower Manhattan or the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
