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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Oliver O'Connell

Ghislaine Maxwell to offer nearly $30m in bail and admit she is married, reports say

Photograph: Getty

Six months after being detained as a potential flight risk ahead of her trial, Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers are set to propose a bail package totalling nearly $28.5m.

The disgraced friend of Jeffrey Epstein is charged with six counts of recruiting and grooming girls and young women to be sexually abused by both her and Epstein.

She will appear before a New York judge in the coming days in order to be released from prison before Christmas, according to reports that first appeared in the The Daily Telegraph.

As much as $22m of the bail with come from Ms Maxwell’s rumoured husband — tech CEO Scott Borgerson — whom she has previously refused to identify.

The bail hearing will be the first time she has publicly acknowledged being married, ABC News reports.

Ms Maxwell’s brothers Kevin and Ian Maxwell, and close friends, will post the remainder of the bail money.

She has detained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn since her arrest in July. The Telegraph reports that she will request to be let out on house arrest, will wear an electronic tag, and will waive the right to be extradited to the UK or France where she also holds citizenship, in addition to the US.

Ms Maxwell was denied bail of $5m in July after prosecutors argued that she was revealing the full truth about her finances. The new package will include a financial report detailing all of her assets from 2015-2020, as well as those of her family.

Court papers show her lawyers seeking bail for a second time in a closed-door session to keep the identity of the co-signers from becoming public fearing media scrutiny or harassment.

"Ms Maxwell and her counsel have assembled substantial information that was not available to present at the initial hearing [in July], as well as a comprehensive bail package co-signed by sureties who were unable to come forward at that time," wrote Christian Everdell, an attorney for Ms Maxwell, on 25 November.

The proposed bail package, Mr Everdell wrote, will include letters from family and friends that contain details that would “invite identification and harassment of the sureties and other third parties, including minor children”, were they to be made public.

Ms Maxwell has asked for the hearing to be set for 21 December.

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