Epstein's pimp to court: How's about $28.5 million to spring me on bail?

Actually, why not? This might remove a major headache from the notorious Metropolitan Correctional Center, allowing them to focus their too-few resources on more violent offenders rather than preventing Ghislaine Maxwell’s early exit from this mortal coil. Her attorneys offered a $28.5 million guarantee for bail, essentially the entire net worth of Maxwell and her unnamed husband, which sounds like it meets the purpose of bail in the constitutional sense.

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If only Maxwell had been a bit more honest about it:

Lawyers for the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein are urging a judge to free her to await trial under a $28.5 million bail package that would include armed guards to ensure she remains safe and doesn’t flee a New York City residence.

The bail arguments on behalf of Ghislaine Maxwell, first filed under seal last Tuesday, were publicly released late Monday with redactions in Manhattan federal court that were approved by Judge Alison J. Nathan.

They were supported by numerous letters from family and friends who insisted that Maxwell sought seclusion in a New Hampshire home in December 2019 after receiving death threats and worrying that the public and media would find her at a home where she lived with her husband. …

“I can attest that when she moved, it was always and only due to fear of being discovered by the press or ‘vigilantes’ – the fear was palpable,” the unidentified individual wrote. “The only reason that she was forced to find quiet places to be in all this time, is due to the howling ‘mobs’ screaming for her ‘scalp’ on Twitter and other social media outlets.”

That probably has some significant truth to it. The media had gone into full Where’s Waldo mode on Maxwell, undoubtedly to a predatory level. Was that the only reason, though? Maxwell didn’t try to flee the US, but she also didn’t make it easy for law enforcement to locate her either. This next claim is simply laughable:

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The individual added: “She has never hid from the authorities and is frustrated that she never had the opportunity to talk to them personally to counteract all the lies pouring out in the media.”

That’s the passive-voice spin to end all passive-voice spin. Maxwell’s unhappy that she never had the opportunity to talk to authorities? Horse puckey. Maxwell could have had that opportunity at any time by instructing her attorneys to set up a meeting with the FBI. That could have taken place anywhere in the world, whether Maxwell was hiding or not. Maxwell never had the opportunity because she did everything she could to prevent that opportunity from arising, right up until the moment that the FBI finally tracked her down and raided her house.

Now her still-officially-anonymous husband wants her out again, claiming that the US can rely on her … ahem … “strong, forthright character“:

The husband of Ghislaine Maxwell and more than a dozen of her family members and friends have submitted letters to a federal court in support of an effort to obtain pretrial release for the accused co-conspirator of the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to court documents made public on Monday.

The letters attest to “Maxwell’s strong, forthright character” and “their confidence that she will not flee,” her attorneys wrote in a renewed motion for bail, which also includes a proposed bond package totaling $28.5 million secured by three U.S. properties owned by Maxwell and her husband along with other assets of close family and friends.

The court filing reveals for the first time that Maxwell, the youngest daughter of the late British publishing tycoon Robert Maxwell, has been married since 2016 and was living what her attorneys describe as a “quiet family life with her spouse” until Epstein’s arrest last year “ignited a media frenzy that has ripped the family apart.” Maxwell’s husband, whose name is redacted from the public version of the filing, wrote that the person described in the federal government’s criminal charges is “not the person we know.”

“I have never witnessed anything close to inappropriate with Ghislaine; quite to the contrary, the Ghislaine I know is a wonderful and loving person,” her husband wrote in a letter accompanying the motion for bail.

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Clearly, that’s how her husband sees Maxwell. Virginia Roberts Giuffre and other victims of Jeffrey Epstein see her just a wee bit differently, and so do prosecutors, as shown in their indictments. Maxwell has to answer for her own alleged predatory behavior, and the government wants to make sure she doesn’t take Epstein’s example in weaseling out of it.

In the end, though, one has to wonder whether keeping Maxwell at MCC on remand makes any sense. The jail has better things to do than dedicate all these resources for Maxwell’s suicide watch for months or years on end. The bail commitment might be all that’s needed to make sure she doesn’t commit suicide on the outside, because it would leave her husband broke (allegedly) if she doesn’t show up for her trial. Being at home might make her less suicidal as well. And in the end, a no-bail condition really should be reserved for either demonstrated flight risks or for crimes like murder; the US Constitution requires a more reasonable approach to bail, even for Ghislaine Maxwell. Let Mr & Mrs Maxwell pick up her tab rather than taxpayers for a while … at least until the trial.

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