Jeffery Epstein Confidant Ghislaine Maxwell Asks For $5 Million Bail, House Arrest Over Coronavirus

Ghislaine Maxwell, accused of procuring young girls and grooming them for abuse by Jeffery Epstein, asked Friday to be released on $5 million bail, claiming she had not been in touch with her former boyfriend for more than a decade and has no criminal record, court documents filed in Manhattan showed.

CNBC reported Maxwell claimed the charges against her should be dropped because of a decade-old deal that allowed Epstein to avoild federal prosecution. Epstein committed suicide while in federal lockup in Manhattan after being denied bail on charges of sex trafficking minors.

“The media focus quickly shifted to our client -- wrongly trying to substitute her for Epstein -- even though she’d had no contact with Epstein for more than a decade, had never been charged with a crime or been found liable in any civil litigation, and has always denied any allegations of claimed misconduct,” Maxwell’s lawyers, Mark Cohen and Jeffrey Pagliuca, wrote in the court filing..

“She was not named in the government’s indictment of Epstein in 2019 despite the fact that the government has been investigating this case for years. Instead, the current indictment is based on allegations of conduct that allegedly occurred roughly 25 years ago.”

Maxwell, who was arrested in New Hampshire last week after being accused of luring at least three underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse in the 1990s, is also looking to be released on house arrest with electronic monitoring in New York as her case moves forward, the documents said.

Her lawyers also argued Maxwell should be released on bail due to the impact of the coronavirus on prisoners and to allow her to better communicate with her legal team over her defense, which her attorneys claim has been difficult since her detainment.

The court documents also request bail because of Maxwell’s strong ties to the community, American citizenship and lack of criminal record. If granted house arrest, Maxwell would reportedly only receive visits at her home from close friends, family and her lawyers.

Security staff also would be present to report to authorities, and all travel would be limited to New York City, Long Island and several counties north of the city proper, the court filing said.

“Ms. Maxwell vigorously denies the charges, intends to fight them and is entitled to the presumption of innocence,” her lawyers said.

Prosecutors maintain Maxwell, the daughter of disgraced media mogul Robert Maxwell, is an extreme flight risk as she holds several passports, citizenship in three countries and is wealthy, CNBC reported.

The $5 million bond suggested by Maxwell’s lawyers would be signed by six co-signers in addition to being backed by a $3.75 million property in the U.K.

A bail hearing was set for Tuesday. Maxwell was being held in the federal detention center in Brooklyn on suicide watch.