Ghislaine Maxwell to appear in court for the first time since arrest
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Ghislaine Maxwell will appear in person in Manhattan federal court Friday — for the first time since she was arrested last year for allegedly procuring underage girls for multimillionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein to abuse.
Maxwell, who has been locked in a Brooklyn jail since her arrest, will appear for her arraignment on two sex-trafficking charges that were added to her indictment by federal prosecutors in March.
Maxwell had requested her arraignment take place in person after a remote hearing in a separate civil case she is involved in was brigaded by conspiracy theorists, who overwhelmed the court’s public phone line.
The 59-year-old has maintained her innocence since her arrest and is expected to plead not guilty to the additional counts Friday.
The two counts — sex trafficking of a minor and sex trafficking conspiracy — are for allegedly recruiting an unidentified underage girl in the early 2000s.
Maxwell and Epstein allegedly groomed the girl in New York and in Florida, where the multimillionaire had a sprawling Palm Beach mansion.
“Epstein and Maxwell recruited Minor Victim- 4 to engage in sex acts with Epstein at the Palm Beach Residence, after which Epstein and, at times, Maxwell provided Minor Victim- 4 with hundreds of dollars in cash for each encounter,” the indictment states.
As part of the grooming, Maxwell sent the girl gifts from New York, including lingerie, the feds allege.
The one-time British socialite — the daughter of late media mogul Robert Maxwell — was Epstein’s former lover and longtime confidante, and became the target of federal investigators after he committed suicide in jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
She was busted last July at a secluded estate in New Hampshire, initially for allegedly recruiting three underage victims — as young as 14 — for sex with the pedophile financier.
She has repeatedly requested to be let out of jail on bail pending her trial, but has been denied each time.
In a series of letters, Maxwell’s attorneys have claimed she is losing weight, losing her hair and was abused by a jail guard during a pat down search at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Officials from the jail have disputed those claims in their own letters and have accused Maxwell of leaving her cell a mess — including by not flushing her toilet.
A New York appeals court is scheduled to hear her argument for being released on bail next week.
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