By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday denied bail to Ghislaine Maxwell, citing the risk the British socialite could try to flee from charges she assisted in the late financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of girls.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan said federal prosecutors persuaded her that Maxwell “poses a flight risk,” and that “no conditions of release can reasonably assure the defendant’s appearance at future proceedings.”
Lawyers for Maxwell did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nathan had previously denied Maxwell bail in July.
Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit and groom girls as young as 14 years old for sex in the mid-1990s, and not guilty to perjury for denying her involvement under oath.
She has been jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn following her July 2 arrest at her New Hampshire home, where prosecutors said she was hiding out. Her trial is scheduled for July 2021.
Maxwell had proposed a $28.5 million bail package, including home confinement with electronic monitoring and 24-hour guard to ensure she remained safe and would not escape.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Richard Chang)
