Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters – Ghislaine maxwell was denied bail Tuesday by a U.S. court ahead of her November 29 criminal trial. She is accused of helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse minor girls.

U.S. District Court Alison Nathan, Manhattan denied Maxwell bail four times since July 2020 when the British socialite had been arrested.

Nathan referenced her previous reasoning, which included that Maxwell was at “significant risk” of flight and that even the $28.5million bail package she proposed would not guarantee Maxwell’s appearance in court.

Maxwell’s bail was rejected twice by the federal appeals courts.

She pleaded guilty to not being charged with sex trafficking, and other charges that relate to Epstein’s abuse of four under-18-year-old girls between 1994-2004. She could spend up to 80 years prison if convicted.

Bobbi Sternheim Maxwell, Maxwell’s lawyer had described Maxwell’s “reprehensible” living conditions in Brooklyn prison to Hannibal Lecter (a fictional serial killer who was famously played by Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 movie “The Silence of the Lambs”).

It was also unfair that Maxwell be locked up, considering former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had been released on bail while they were awaiting trial.

The prosecution countered Maxwell’s bail application essentially repeated arguments Nathan rejected previously and used “rhetoric, anecdotes more suited for tabloids rather than shorts”

Epstein, 66 years old, died while waiting for his trial in Manhattan on charges of sex trafficking. According to a medical expert, Epstein’s suicide was considered suicide.