Ghislaine Maxwell has a '25% to 40% chance' of getting released from jail because of the coronavirus, former federal prosecutor says
- Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime girlfriend and associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested on Thursday in New Hampshire.
- She faces charges related to the grooming and sexual assault of young girls in the mid-1990s.
- Maxwell was transported by US marshals from New Hampshire to New York, where she is expected to be arraigned on Friday.
- A former Assistant US Attorney told the New York Daily News that she has a good chance of being released from custody due to coronavirus concerns.
After nearly a year in hiding, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested in New Hampshire last week.
On Monday, US Marshals transported her to a Brooklyn jail, where she will await her arraignment in New York federal court on Friday.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have said they will ask the judge to ensure Maxwell is held without bail, arguing that her three passports and millions of dollars make her a flight risk. But one former federal prosecutor told The New York Daily News that she has a good chance of release due to the coronavirus.
"She's got a 25% to 40% chance of getting out due to coronavirus," said David Weinstein, a former assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, told the paper. "She's got a much better chance than Epstein had of getting out."
Jails and prisons around the US have been releasing some detainees in an attempt to prevent coronavirus outbreaks.
Some high-profile inmates — like President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, Michael Avenatti, and Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine – have benefited from these policies.
Maxwell, 58, arrived at the troubled Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Monday, according to Reuters. It's not clear why she's being held there rather than Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center, which is where Epstein was held and is typically the jail for people being prosecuted by the US Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York.
"You go from living a life like Maxwell to all of a sudden being in a situation where you're being strip-searched and having people look into your body cavities," said Cameron Lindsay, a former warden at the MDC, told Reuters."That is a crushing experience."
A grand jury indictment from Southern District prosecutors, which includes Manhattan, accuses Maxwell of enticing minors to travel to engage in sexual acts, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual acts, and perjury.
Prosecutors say that beginning in at least 1994, Maxwell had befriended young victims of Epstein and groomed them, talking to them about their lives, interests, and school.
After building a rapport with them, she'd normalize sexual abuse by discussing sexual topics with them, undress in front of them, and being present as convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused them.
She, too, participated in some of the abuse, prosecutors said.
The crimes are said to have taken place at Epstein's homes on the Upper East Side of Manhattan; in Palm Beach, Florida; and in New Mexico, as well as at Maxwell's home in London.
Epstein died by suicide in an MDC Manhattan jail cell last August while facing sex trafficking charges.
Since Epstein's indictment on those charges last July, Maxwell has laid low, moving between locations in New England, the FBI said last week.
- Read more about Ghislaine Maxwell:
- Meet Ghislaine Maxwell
- Ghislaine Maxwell, the woman suspected of helping Jeffrey Epstein run a sex-abuse ring, has been arrested by the FBI
- Here's the indictment against Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime girlfriend accused of sexually abusing young girls
- Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested at a $1 million luxury 4-bedroom New Hampshire house that was bought last year in cash