Opinion: Ghislaine Maxwell Doesn't Deserve Comfort in Jail

AP Photo/John Minchillo
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Audrey Strauss, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaks during a news conference to announce charges against Ghislaine Maxwell for her alleged role in the sexual exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein, Thursday, July 2, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
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In the middle of July, RedState’s Jeff Charles and shipwreckedcrew provided updates on the news story that’s gripped the country for months — the scandal involving the late Jeffrey Epstein’s demented, child sex trafficking ring that threatens to topple world-famous figures like former U.S. president Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew, among others. Of course, with Epstein out of the picture, all eyes are on his former associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Tuesday, my Townhall Media colleague Ed Morrissey brought up a surprising twist in the case. On what was apparently the one year anniversary of convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s reported death by suicide at Brooklyn, NY’s Metropolitan Detention Center — the same prison where Maxwell is being held before trial — her attorneys sent the judge a letter asking that she be taken off suicide watch and released into the general population.

Here’s the relevant bit of the Associated Press/Fox News story Morrissey linked to:

The lawyers representing Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite charged with recruiting teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, wrote a motion to the federal judge assigned to the case requesting that she be released into the Metropolitan Detention Center’s general population so she can “meaningfully participate in her own defense.”

The letter, obtained by Fox News, claims that Maxwell has been “treated less favorably than a typical pretrial detainee[.]”

[…]

The letter also claims that Maxwell has been “subject to suicide watch protocols” that include being “woken up every few hours during the night and being forced to wear special clothing.”

The lawyers point out that their client has never been a risk for suicide but has been kept out of the general population for 36 days.

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Now, it appears her lawyers got some of what they were asking for. Maxwell’s been taken off suicide watch, as Breitbart News’ breaking news desk reported via the U.K.’s Daily Mail:


Daily Mail:

The 58-year-old British socialite was recently taken off suicide watch, but is being subjected to multiple searches each day and is under constant watch of the guards, her lawyers said.

[…]

[Maxwell  lawyer Chris] Everdell also requested for her to be given more computer time in order to review the reams of documents relating to her case.

Further, his team are asking that she be given the names of three anonymous women who are accusing her of grooming and abusing them.

‘Maxwell cannot prepare for or receive a fair trial without this information,’ her lawyers argued.

Call me cold-hearted, but whatever discomfort Ghislaine Maxwell feels about the “conditions” she’s living under doesn’t move me at all. If she’s guilty of working with a sex abuser like Epstein to force young girls to prostitute themselves to their rich and powerful friends, all while enjoying a luxurious lifestyle, she can rot in the dankest, darkest dungeon for the rest of her life. I wouldn’t lose one wink of sleep over it.

Former Court TV and HLN host Nancy Grace nailed it when commenting on Maxwell’s complaints about the way she’s been treated in jail so far.

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“She needs to go to jail and stay in jail. She doesn’t need to see the light of day.

And I really can’t believe she’s whining about her conditions behind bars because the girls that were molested had been sentenced to a lifetime of remembering the molestations.”

I’ll admit I didn’t wake up today expecting to agree with Nancy Grace on something, but what can you do? Strange times, indeed.

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