Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite awaiting trial on charges that she recruited girls in the 1990s for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse is appealing a judge’s order that she remains incarcerated.
According to local reports, the socialite’s lawyers notified a trial judge of plans to appeal her decision to reject a $28.5 million bail package for Maxwell.
It was disclosed that the notice of appeal was posted publicly in the Manhattan federal court record.
It would be recalled that in late December, a federal judge in Manhattan said the bail package proposed by defence lawyers only strengthened her confidence that her decision over the summer to keep Maxwell incarcerated until the July trial was correct.
Reports said the bail package included $22.5 million that lawyers said amounted to all of Maxwell and her husband’s assets, adding that she would be under 24-hour guard and restricted to a New York City apartment where she would wear an electronic bracelet.
Meanwhile, prosecutors opposed bail, noting that Maxwell remained a threat to flee in part because she had access to considerable wealth and connections abroad. Also, they averred that she is a citizen of the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
The report stated that Maxwell, housed at a federal lockup in Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty after her July arrest to charges that she recruited and groomed girls for Epstein, including one who was 14 years old.
Official records have it that Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
