A bail application from Ghislaine Maxwell says she's being kept in jail conditions 'fitting for Hannibal Lecter'

• Ghislaine Maxwell is being held at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.
• A bail application said she's losing weight, hair, and the ability to concentrate while behind bars.
• The application added that the jail is "squalid," and that "COVID has run rampant."

Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein accused of sex trafficking, said the living conditions at her jail are "fitting for Hannibal Lecter but not a 59-year old woman who poses no threat to anyone," in a new bail request.

Maxwell is being held at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center as she awaits trial on charges tied to allegations of sex-trafficking minors with Epstein, who died by suicide in August 2019. Maxwell's lawyers described her the jail conditions as "Kafkaesque."

In the latest bail request, filed Thursday, Maxwell's lawyers said she's losing weight, her hair, and her ability to concentrate while behind bars. The application said the facility was "squalid" and that "COVID has run rampant," and Maxwell has been unable to sleep due to facility staff shining a flashlight into her cell every 15 minutes.

The water Maxwell is served is "often cloudy and is not drinkable," and for months, her food was microwaved with a plastic covering that melted onto the meal, according to the application. The document had a footnote explaining that "the prison has now promised to heat the food properly."

Beyond Maxwell's discomfort in the jail, her lawyers also alleged that the conditions have prevented her from effectively preparing her defense. They argued that Maxwell has been tasked with reviewing more than 2.5 million prosecution pages "on a gutted computer, which does not have the ability to search, edit, or print."

They continued: "Because of the pandemic, in-person lawyer visits are risky, so Ms. Maxwell sees her trial lawyers over a video screen, where she can review one page of the discovery at a time that is projected on a wall three feet away."

Read more: The untold story of Ghislaine Maxwell's secret husband, Scott Borgerson

The documents said Maxwell has filed three bail applications, but has been denied each time due to concerns that she may be a flight risk. Maxwell's lawyers wrote in the application that she was not a flight risk, and was willing to have her assets controlled and monitored by a former federal judge and renounce her French and British citizenships.

Earlier this week Maxwell was indicted with additional sex-trafficking charges that included a fourth accuser who was a minor at the time cited in the allegations.

Maxwell was arrested by the FBI in July 2020 while hiding in a $1 million New Hampshire estate. A grand jury indictment charged her with enticing minors to travel to engage in sexual acts, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual acts, and perjury.