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Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly allowed in person legal visit despite coronavirus lockdown

Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing in Manhattan Federal Court in New York - Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing in Manhattan Federal Court in New York - Jane Rosenberg/Reuters

Ghislaine Maxwell has reportedly been allowed an in-person visit by her legal team in what is believed to be the first permitted in a New York City federal jail during the pandemic lockdown.

According to the New York Daily News, Maxwell, who is facing six criminal charges, was allowed to hold a face to face meeting at Sunset Park’s Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Friday morning. All involved reportedly wore masks during the meeting.

Other inmates, who have been in lockdown since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, have had neither family, nor legal visits. Maxwell has been held on remand for less than two months.

“I’m incredulous really that she was the first one when there are those of us who have been waiting for nearly six months to have an in-person visit with our clients,” Susan Marcus, a lawyer representing detainees in the centre, told the paper.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell  - Patrick McMullan
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell - Patrick McMullan

The Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to confirm or deny whether Maxwell was the first inmate to receive an in-person visit in New York City since the lockdown.

“While, in general, legal visits are suspended, case-by-case accommodations will be accomplished at the local level and confidential legal calls will be allowed in order to ensure inmates maintain access to counsel,” said Justin Long, a spokesman for the Bureau.

“We are facilitating attorney client-visitation, as well as judicial proceedings, via video conference, primarily at our detention centres.”

In July 58-year-old Maxwell, who denies charges of luring girls for Jeffrey Epstein to abuse, was denied bail.

US district judge Alison Nathan ruled that Maxwell, the daughter of the late media mogul and MP Robert Maxwell, represented a significant flight risk.

Maxwell had offered to post $5 million bail, but that did not satisfy the court. Judge Nathan said an even larger bond or the most restrictive house arrest conditions would be insufficient.

In February last year, the Sunset Park detention centre was the focus of angry protests from inmates’ family members and lawyers after those inside the facility were left without heat during a brutal cold snap because of a partial power outage.