Ghislane Maxwell Pleads Not Guilty, Denied Bail at First Sex Trafficking Court Appearance
Richard Moorhead
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Longtime Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislane Maxwell pleaded not guilty in her first federal court appearance on Tuesday, with a judge denying her bail and scheduling her trial on sex trafficking charges for July of 2021.
Maxwell was arrested earlier this month and charged with six federal crimes alleging that the heiress had assisted infamous pedophile billionaire in the operation of an elite sex trafficking network. Maxwell allegedly procured and provided underage women for Epstein and the now-deceased oligarch’s elite political connections to sexually abuse.
Prosecutors argued that Maxwell’s considerable wealth and ownership of several properties in the United Kingdom and France made her a verifiable flight risk, that warranted her continued pre-trial detention without bail. Maxwell’s lawyers had tried to use her overseas properties as collateral to secure her release.
Maxwell is being afforded an elevated level of personal security in Brooklyn’s federal jail facility, with authorities hoping to avoid a repeat of the infamous Jeffery Epstein death in custody. The Department of Justice is purportedly moving her from cell to cell to throw off any potential ‘assassins’ from triangulating upon her location.
Maxwell is maintaining her innocence, pleading not guilty to every federal charge at her first court appearance. Witnesses at the hearing report that Maxwell began to cry when Judge Alison Nathan denied the British heiress bail, ensuring that she would remain in custody in the federal jail system before her trial, citing Maxwell’s “extraordinary capacity to evade detection.” Maxwell had sought bail conditions that would require her presence at a luxury Manhattan hotel.
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