IS SHE A FLIGHT RISK?
Brigitte Kimichik • July 14, 2020
Alleged Madame Ghislaine Maxwell - Is She a Flight Risk?
Ghislaine Maxwell (58), the former girlfriend and alleged “Madam” of Jeffrey Epstein was arraigned yesterday during a virtual hearing on 4 federal charges relating to sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors, and 2 federal charges for perjury for lying under oath to federal prosecutors. Maxwell has pleaded not guilty of all charges.
After her arrest last week Thursday at her 156 acre property located in Bedford, New Hampshire, Maxwell was finally settled at the Federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, NY, until her hearing today would determine if the court would grant bail for her release. Her $5 million bail bond package
was denied.
According to reports, her lawyers claim that Maxwell has been wrongly targeted, that she is innocent of the charges, did not have any contact with Epstein prior to his death for more than a decade, and that she had no intent of fleeing the country. She claims to have a close relationship with her two sisters who live in the U.S. and purchased a property for her residence in New Hampshire last year. If she had wanted to flee, she could have gone to France which does not extradite its own citizens. Maxwell is also a French citizen. She claims to have secluded herself to get away from the press given her notoriety and prior relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. For all of those reasons and given the great risk of exposure to the Corona virus, she pleaded for release on bail.
The judge however, did not agree. The prosecutors argued that her 3 passports, $20 million in liquid wealth held in 15 different accounts, her vast international connections, and the fact that she was hiding, made her an extreme flight risk. At today's hearing,
federal prosecutors maintained when Maxwell was arrested, agents had to break down the door and found her hiding in a room in the interior of a home that she purchased under a different name. Maxwell sought to evade FBI detection by using former British military as her personal security and wrapping her cellphone in tin foil. The FBI alleged further that Maxwell secluded herself in her remote home and had her security team shop for her. According to the FBI, all indications that she did not want to be found.
Some argue her passports could be seized, her liquid wealth frozen, and she could wear an ankle bracelet to prevent her from leaving the country. The charges against her relate to a time period from 1994 to 1997, more than 25 years ago. Would she have received bail had she not been associated with Jeffrey Epstein? Is Maxwell's possible knowledge of other participant violators and/or co-conspirators in Epstein's sex trafficking influencing the ruling on bail?
Trial is not set until July of 2021. One year from now. Maxwell will be sitting in jail at risk for Covid19 and if the conspiracies challenging Epstein's death as suicide are true, her life may be in danger.
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