Epstein associate Maxwell denied bail, pleads not guilty to sex, perjury charges

A New York judge on Tuesday denied bail to former Jeffrey Epstein girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was arrested earlier this month on federal sex charges related to minors.

Maxwell pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her trial is set for July 2021.

Maxwell's attorneys had requested that their client be released on a $5 million bail, arguing that being behind bars puts her at risk for contracting the coronavirus.

The 58-year-old Maxwell was arrested by federal agents on July 2 in New Hampshire on charges, which are linked to financier Epstein, who last year committed suicide in a New York jail while awaiting trial in connection to sex trafficking charges.

Maxwell, if found guilty, could face up to 35 years in prison for the six charges – four counts of sex charges involving three minors and two counts of perjury.

Prosecutors at the bail hearing argued Maxwell was a flight risk, considering she had the financial means to flee and has proven adept at doing so. 

She appeared via video conferencing.

The presiding judge, Alison Nathan, was appointed by President Obama in 2011. Maxwell was represented by attorney Mark Cohen.  The lead prosecutor is Alison Moe of the Southern District of New York. Moe works in the Public Corruption unit. 

Moe argued that it would be unwise to grant Maxwell bail because there would be no guarantee that she would return for trial and that she had lied under oath. Moe also said Maxwell failed to fully disclose her finances, lied about her identity by changing her name and had been pretending to be a journalist while hiding from the authorities.

“She has not earned the court's trust,” Moe told the court.

Moe zeroed in on Maxwell's purported lack of financial transparency. She said when Maxwell was questioned about her money she snapped that she "could not remember from off the top of her head how many millions of dollars she has."  

Two alleged victims of Maxwell were given the chance to make a statement. The first victim chose not to appear or give permission to have her name made public, but she wrote a statement for Moe to read in court.

This unidentified, alleged victim's statement said that she has “great fear that Ghislaine Maxwell will flee” and that she received a phone call one night threatening her 2-year-old's life if she testified.

The other alleged victim was Annie Farmer, who said she met Maxwell when she was 16.

"She is a sexual predator who groomed and abused me and countless other children and young women," Farmer told the court. "She has never shown any remorse for her heinous crimes or the devastating, lasting effects her actions caused.”

Cohen argued that the victims had a right to speak but that their statements “weren’t relevant” during the bail hearing.