Ghislaine Maxwell, the alleged former madam of Jeffrey Epstein, got some bad news from a federal judge on Monday when she was denied bail for a third time as she continues to await trial for various sex charges. She had previously been denied bail last July and December, and her trial is scheduled to begin this coming July.
Yahoo News reported that Maxwell fought for a third time to be given bail by saying that she would surrender both her British and French passports. In addition, she said she would have her assets placed in an account that would be monitored by a retired federal judge who would ensure they were not used for her to flee, according to The Hill.
Despite this, Manhattan federal court Judge Alison Nathan ruled that she was still a flight risk. The judge said in her ruling that “the Court concludes that none of the Defendant’s new arguments and proposals disturb its conclusion that the Defendant poses a risk of flight and that there are no combination of conditions that can reasonably assure her appearance.”
Judge Nathan went on to say that the court’s “assessment” of her risk factors were unchanged, adding that Maxwell “continues to have substantial international ties, familial and personal connections abroad, substantial financial resources, and experience evading detection.”
Maxwell was arrested last summer on various charges related to her allegedly grooming young girls for sex with Epstein between 1994-1997. Maxwell, 58, has claimed that she is innocent ever since her arrest.
The former British socialite’s attorneys have long claimed that she is being kept in horrific conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
“While her weight may currently be fairly consistent, she had lost over 15 pounds, and she is sustaining hair loss,” Maxwell’s attorney Bobbi Sternheim wrote in a letter to Judge Nathan back in December.
The lawyer went on to allege that Maxwell has been kept in isolation and has not been given access to education and leisure programs, movies, religious services, among other opportunities.
“It is obvious that Ms. Maxwell is bearing the brunt of BOP incompetence,” Sternheim wrote, adding that the MDC has “imposed extraordinarily onerous conditions of constraint on Ms. Maxwell to avoid the catastrophic consequences of negligence occurring at the MCC that resulted in the death of Jeffrey Epstein.”
Sternheim was referring to the fact that Epstein committed suicide in prison last year while awaiting trial on sex crime charges of his own. Sternheim concluded by calling for the warden of the prison to be brought before the court to debrief the judge directly on the conditions Maxwell is being kept in.
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