Ghislaine Maxwell ‘will become fugitive and flee justice if she’s freed on bail’

Ghislaine Maxwell is an ‘extreme risk for flight’ if she is released on bail, prosecutors said.

Assistant US Attorney Alison Moe laid out the case against releasing Maxwell on bail at her first court hearing on Tuesday. Maxwell was arrested earlier this month and is accused of grooming and molesting three girls as young as 14 between 1994 and 1997 in the US and UK while acting as a madam for billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell allegedly performed ‘sexualized massages where the victim was partially or fully nude’ in and ‘ongoing scheme to abuse multiple victims for a pattern of years,’ Moe said.

Moe went on to say there is an ‘incredibly strong incentive for the defendant to flee, to become a fugitive to avoid being held accountable’ and cited her unwillingness to disclose her finances, as well as her citizenship in both the UK and France.

The prosecutor said the Department of Justice has reached out to authorities in both France and the UK, explaining that France would not extradite a French citizen back to the US and the extradition process in the UK would be ‘lengthy’ with an ‘uncertain’ outcome.

Moe also said that Maxwell tried to evade FBI agents as they approached her New Hampshire hideaway, touting it as further evidence to support Maxwell’s flight risk.

‘The defendant did not respond to law enforcement…instead she left and went into a different room,’ Moe said.

According to court documents released Monday, a cellphone was found wrapped in tin foil in Maxwell’s estate, which is believed to have been an attempt to avoid detection.

‘There can be no reason for wrapping the cellphone in tin foil other than to evade law enforcement…albeit foolishly,’ Moe said.

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