Ghislaine Maxwell, who was arrested earlier this month for her alleged role in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls, allegedly used tin foil to avoid being found by authorities, federal prosecutors said Monday. The details were revealed in court documents filed against Mawell’s request for a $5 million bond, reports Fox News. Maxwell, who was Epstein’s ex-girlfriend, was arrested in New Hampshire on July 2.
Federal prosecutors have argued against allowing Maxwell to be released while awaiting trial, claiming she is a flight risk and experienced at hiding. They noted her wealth, lack of remaining ties to New York, and that she remains a French citizen. Since France does not extradite its citizens, Maxwell could flee to the country, prosecutors said. Monday’s documents also detailed the lengths Maxwell went to keep authorities off her trail before her arrest at a $1 million home in New Hampshire.
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“Through a window, the agents saw the defendant ignore the direction to open the door and, instead, try to flee to another room in the house, quickly shutting a door behind her,” prosecutors wrote. Once FBI agents got inside the home, they saw Maxwell in one room and a cellphone wrapped in tin foil on a desk. This tactic was “a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection, not by the press or public, which of course would have no ability to trace her phone or intercept her communications, but by law enforcement,” the documents read. Agents also spoke with a security guard who was a member of a security firm Maxwell’s brother hired to watch over the home. The guards were former members of the British military, according to prosecutors.
In the documents, prosecutors said there would “be no trial for the victims if the defendant is afforded the opportunity to flee the jurisdiction, and there is every reason to think that is exactly what she will do if she is released,” reports CNBC. Prosecutors also said there would be “one or more” victims testifying during the detention hearing on Tuesday. Maxwell asked the judge for a $5 million personal recognizance bond, which will be secured by six signatories and over $3 million in property.
Maxwell has been held without bail since she was arrested earlier this month. She faces six charges for her alleged role in Epstein’s multi-state sex trafficking ring involving young girls. Epstein’s victims have accused Maxwell of helping Epstein by grooming girls as young as 14 to be sexually abused by him, beginning in the mid-1990s. Maxwell, who Epstein paid to manage his real estate holdings, denied the charges.
Epstein died in prison on Aug. 10, 2019, just weeks after he was arrested for child sex trafficking. The wealthy investor’s death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Maxwell mostly disappeared from public view in 2016 and went into hiding after Epstein was arrested. On Monday, prosecutors said her bail request “wholly fails to appreciate the driving force behind this case: the defendant’s victims were sexually abused as minors as a direct result of Ghislaine Maxwell’s actions, and they have carried the trauma from these events for their entire adult lives.”
