Lawyers for Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend are urging a judge to release her to await trial under a $ 28.5 million bail package that includes armed guards to make sure she stays safe and not out of a property in New York City flight.
The bail arguments on behalf of Ghislaine Maxwell, which were first sealed last Tuesday, were publicly released late Monday with editorials in Manhattan federal court approved by Judge Alison J. Nathan.
They were supported by numerous letters from family and friends who insisted that in December 2019, Maxwell sought seclusion in a New Hampshire home after receiving death threats and worried that the public and media would find her in a home she met. her husband lived.
A security specialist who offered to pledge $ 1 million for the bail package and to provide Maxwell with armed security if she is released on bail, said Maxwell retired to a back room of her home as the FBI approached on July 2 because it was believed that reporters had found her.
Maxwell, 58, is scheduled to face trial in July on charges of recruiting three teenage girls for Epstein in the mid-1990s.
Her first bail attempt was rejected shortly after her arrest in July.
The attorneys said Maxwell and her husband, with whom she has lived for most of the past four years, offered a bail package that consisted in part of a $ 22.5 million personal acknowledgment secured by $ 8 million in properties and $ 500,000 in cash. They said it represents all of Maxwell’s and her husband’s assets, including three houses.
The spouse was not identified in court documents, but a financial report among the exhibits said the couple was married in 2016 and Maxwell put most of the $ 20.2 million in assets she had in 2015 into a trust who was controlled by her husband. It said the assets, $ 16 million of which was in cash or stock, were worth $ 22.5 million on October 31.
The financial report also noted that in their initial bail-out filing, prosecutors mentioned transfers totaling more than $ 20 million between 2007 and 2011, describing them as transfers from Epstein’s accounts to Maxwell’s accounts and vice versa.
The financial report noted that during those years, Maxwell was acting as an officer of several corporate entities related to aircraft and air travel related to Epstein and that there were significant transfers involving those corporate entities.
The identities of seven other close friends and family members who, according to the lawyers, were willing to pledge about $ 5 million of their equity for the bail package, were also not disclosed. The lawyers said bail would include electronic monitoring.
“Ms. Maxwell vigorously maintains her innocence and is committed to defending herself,” the lawyers wrote. “She wants nothing more than to stay in this country to combat the allegations against her, which are based on the unconfirmed testimony of a handful of witnesses about events that took place more than 25 years ago.”
To support the bail request, the lawyers included a letter from Maxwell’s husband. They said the letter recounts how Ms. Maxwell was forced to leave her family and fall out of the public eye, not because she escaped law enforcement, but because of “the intense media frenzy and threats following Jeffrey Epstein’s arrest and death.”
In a letter accompanying the bail request as evidence, one person wrote, “Her love for … her husband was one of the main reasons why she stayed as close as possible while fighting for her innocence.”
“I can confirm that when she moved, it was always and only for fear of being discovered by the press or ‘vigilantes’ – the fear was palpable,” wrote the stranger. “The only reason she was forced all along. Seeking quiet places is because of the howling mobs who shouted for her ‘scalp’ on Twitter and other social media. ”
The person added, “She has never hidden from the authorities and is frustrated that she has never had the opportunity to speak to them in person to counter all the lies that come out in the media.”
Epstein committed suicide in federal detention in Manhattan in August 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He was 66.
A prosecutor spokesman declined to comment.