NEW YORK (AP) – Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell told court officials at the time of his arrest in July that she was “in the process of divorcing her husband,” a disclosure that prosecutors said undermines her argument that the marriage will keep her in the U.S. if she is released from prison.
Prosecutors highlighted the debate over Maxwell’s divorce in a 33-page response Friday to his lawyers’ renewed filing to get her out of a federal lockout in Brooklyn, where she is awaiting trial on charges she recruited at least three girls. teenagers for Epstein to sexually abuse them in the 1990s.
Born into wealth and high society as the daughter of a British edition mogul, Maxwell is now frequently awakened by guards to make sure she breathes and her lawyers say she is at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 between bars.
Maxwell’s lawyers this week proposed in court documents that he instead await trial on $ 28.5 million bail., supported in large part by the assets of her and her husband, which would include armed guards to make sure she did not flee a New York residence.
Prosecutors noted in her response, however, that she would stay there with someone other than her husband. The person’s name faded in court documents. Maxwell’s husband has not been identified in court documents.
Maxwell, 58, remains at extreme risk of absconding as she faces charges that could put her in jail for up to 35 years if convicted, prosecutors said. In addition to the United States and the United Kingdom, it also has citizenship in France, which does not extradite its citizens outside the European Union, they said.
Epstein, Maxwell’s ex-boyfriend, was killed in the Manhattan Federal Prison cell in August 2019, a month after his arrest on sex trafficking charges. He was 66 years old.
Prosecutors said Friday in their file that they are confident in the strength of the case against Maxwell, which they say will include extensive testimony from the three prosecutors, as well as corroboration of documents and eyewitness accounts.
Maxwell’s lawyers have said he “vehemently maintains his innocence” and pledges to remain in the United States and defend himself.
The three women Maxwell allegedly recruited for Epstein as the girls want him to remain in jail awaiting trial, prosecutors said. One of them, Annie Farmer, wrote in a letter accompanying the prosecution’s response that she did not think they would ever see justice if Maxwell was released.
“He has lived a privileged life, abusing his position of power to live beyond the rules,” Farmer wrote. “Fleeing the country to escape once again would fit with its long history of antisocial behavior.”
The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse unless they have given permission to be publicly named, as Farmer has done.
Maxwell’s first attempt to bail, shortly after his arrest, was rejected.
Federal agents who kept Maxwell running after Epstein’s arrest tracked her down to a New Hampshire wooded estate she bought a year ago for a million dollars. Her friends and family insisted in letters to the court that she sought solitary confinement after receiving death threats and worrying the public and the media that she would be found in a house where she lived with her husband.
A financial report included among the court samples in Maxwell’s case said she and her husband were married in 2016 and put most of their assets in a trust he controlled. These assets were valued at $ 22.5 million as of Oct. 31, according to the report.
Maxwell still has access to more than $ 4 million in unrestricted funds, prosecutors said citing the financial report. She owns a $ 2 million townhouse in London, has hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewelry and has access to $ 7 million paid to her lawyers, prosecutors said.
In addition to Maxwell’s marital intrigue, prosecutors said she and her husband included her marital status as “unmarried” in the bank forms they filled out to set up a trust account about two years ago.
Prosecutors urged Judge Alison Nathan to give little weight to Maxwell’s husband’s involvement in the request for his release from prison, as he refused to appear at the time of his arrest. .
“While a friend’s desire to avoid advertising may be understandable, a spouse’s desire to distance themselves in this way, especially when combined with the defendant’s inconsistent statements about the state of their relationship, undermines their claim that their marriage is a bond that would keep them in the United States, “prosecutors wrote.
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