Maxwell has been charged with four counts of sex trafficking a minor and two counts of perjury, according to the federal indictment.<\/p>\n
The charges involve three girls who were under the age of 18 when Maxwell allegedly recruited them to engage in sexual acts with Epstein from the years of 1994 through 1997. According to the charges, Maxwell \u201cgroomed\u201d the three girls for Epstein and, in one case, took part in the sexual activity. The girls were allegedly abused at multiple locations, including Epstein\u2019s New York mansion, his estate in Palm Beach, his ranch in New Mexico and Maxwell\u2019s personal residence in London.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaxwell\u2019s presence as an adult woman helped put the victims at ease as Maxwell and Epstein intended,\u201d said Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney, in announcing the charges against Maxwell at a Thursday news conference.<\/p>\n
Speaking about the perjury charges brought against Maxwell, based on statements Maxwell made in 2016 in a civil suit brought by one of Epstein and Maxwell\u2019s alleged victims, Strauss said, \u201cMaxwell lied because the truth, as alleged, was almost unspeakable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors asked that Maxwell be held without bail, saying she \u201cposes an extreme risk of flight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaxwell has three passports, large sums of money, extensive international connections, and absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence,\u201d prosecutors wrote in a filing Thursday.<\/p>\n
Maxwell made an appearance by video before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Johnstone in New Hampshire Thursday afternoon and is being transferred by the U.S. Marshals Service to New York, where she will face a hearing on the government\u2019s request to deny her bail.<\/p>\n
Before the call started, a woman with her British accent could be heard sobbing on the line saying, \u201cI don\u2019t understand, I don\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Herald asked Maxwell\u2019s attorney, Larry Vogelman, whether the voice had been Maxwell\u2019s and he said that he had not heard the voice and that his client had no comment on the charges and the government\u2019s request for her to be held without bail.<\/p>\n
The Maxwell indictment comes nearly a year after the new charges were filed against Epstein for alleged crimes between 2002 and 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case against Ghislaine Maxwell is the prequel to the earlier case we brought against Jeffrey Epstein,\u201d Strauss said.<\/p>\n
Epstein\u2019s charges were driven in part by the Miami Herald\u2019s Perversion of Justice<\/a>\u00a0series, which detailed Epstein\u2019s lenient sentence for sex charges a decade earlier. Alexander Acosta was U.S. attorney for Southern Florida at the time of the initial sentence, personally approving a non-prosecution agreement that ensured Epstein was spared the prospect of federal prison. Epstein served a short stint in the Palm Beach County jail.<\/p>\n Epstein was found hanging in his cell <\/a>in New York City the day after thousands of court documents were released detailing Maxwell\u2019s role in allegedly luring hundreds of women and underage girls to his various homes \u2014 and providing new information on the powerful men who befriended Epstein and are suspected in some cases to have had sex with the women and girls.<\/p>\n The Epstein case is also the focus of an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice\u2019s Office of Professional Responsibility, which is looking into whether there was any corruption on the part of federal prosecutors who failed to bring charges against Epstein in 2007-2008 when they had the case.<\/p>\n Maxwell is the daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell<\/a>, who himself died under mysterious circumstances in 1991.<\/p>\n
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