Bail hearing set for Ghislaine Maxwell in New York

A judge in New York has set a date for the arraignment and bail hearing of Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell, court officials said.

The 58-year-old will appear via video in an initial appearance in Manhattan federal court on July 14, according to judge Alison J Nathan.

She was arrested last week at her New Hampshire home and transferred to New York by the US Marshals Service on Monday to face charges that she recruited women and girls, one as young as 14, for Epstein to sexually abuse.

Maxwell, the daughter of British publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, was the former girlfriend and longtime close associate of Epstein, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail last August while he awaited trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

Prosecutors had previously written to a judge requesting the hearing take place on Friday, stating that Maxwell “poses an extreme risk of flight”.

Maxwell has three passports, is wealthy with lots of international connections, and has “absolutely no reason to stay in the United States and face the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence,” they wrote in a memo.

She is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.

She has denied wrongdoing and called claims against her “absolute rubbish”.