Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell will appear in court via video-link on July 14 for an arraignment and bail hearing on charges that she recruited girls for him to sexually abuse more than two decades ago, a judge has said.
US District Judge Alison J Nathan set the date in an order as she announced special arrangements to allow limited public access to the video feed of Maxwell facing charges for the first time in Manhattan federal court next week.
At the time, Epstein, 66, was facing sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell was taken to New York City by the US Marshals Service on Monday, when she was housed at a Brooklyn federal detention centre.
Her lawyers did not return a message seeking comment, though they said in court papers that they spoke with her on Monday evening.
Prosecutors say they plan to ask that Maxwell be kept in detention pending trial on the grounds that she has the money, the overseas connections and the incentive to flee.
As well as a telephone feed available to the public for the hearing, the judge said a video feed of the remote proceedings will be set up in the courthouse jury assembly room.
“Due to social distancing requirements, seating will be extremely limited,” the judge said.
All visitors to the courthouse will also have their temperatures checked and face masks will be required, she added.
The court papers alleged that the abuse began when one of them was as young as 14 and occurred at residences in Palm Beach, Florida; Santa Fe, New Mexico; and London.
Maxwell has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and called some of the claims against her “absolute rubbish”.
