Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorneys say the British socialite is losing weight and her hair due to the conditions she faces in jail.
Maxwell has been accused of procuring underage girls for millionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison last year. His death was ruled a suicide.
“While [Maxwell’s] weight may currently be fairly consistent, she had lost over 15 pounds, and she is sustaining hair loss,” wrote her attorney, Bobbi Sternheim in a letter to the judge overseeing Maxwell’s case.
Sternheim wrote the letter in response to the federal Bureau of Prisons’ own letter to U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, in which it wrote that Maxwell is being properly cared for and that she is of a healthy weight.
“Since Ms. Maxwell’s arrival, she has been provided three meals a day in accordance with BOP policy and its National Menu,” Sophia Papapetru, a staff attorney for the prison, wrote in the letter defending Maxwell’s care, obtained by Fox News. “Her medical records show that she currently weighs 134 pounds, which fluctuates plus or minus 2 pounds.”
Maxwell and her attorneys had previously complained about her conditions. Maxwell said she couldn’t sleep well because guards woke her up every 15 minutes to make sure she’s still alive. Many have worried that Maxwell will commit suicide to avoid punishment for her alleged crimes.
“MDC Brooklyn correctional staff utilize flashlights when viewing inmates’ cells overnight to ensure inmates are still breathing and not in distress,” the BOP wrote in its letter.
The BOP also insisted Maxwell has access to “recreational space, social calls, television, shower, legal telephone calls, email, computers, and discovery material” between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. She’s allowed 500 minutes a month of social calls, and has been using them, the BOP wrote. The letter also stated that Maxwell is free to snack in her cell and sip water and that her cell is properly heated and the temperature is checked three times a day.
Further, Maxwell has avoided the COVID-19 infection that has blown through prisons across the country.
Maxwell was arrested in July and is awaiting trial on charges that she recruited young women and underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse. Some of the victims alleged that Maxwell herself abused them as well. Maxwell has also been charged with perjury for allegedly lying about the sexual abuse in deposition testimony several years ago during a civil suit brought against her.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Maxwell and her attorneys are trying to keep much of the evidence against her sealed, including her bail motion. She also attempted to keep secret a “damaging” deposition from the 2016 civil suit, though the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York determined a deposition about Maxwell’s sex life should be released to the public.
Maxwell maintains her innocence.
Virginia Giuffre, the most prominent Epstein accuser, alleges Epstein made her his “sex slave” and that Maxwell helped facilitate his crimes. Giuffre’s attorneys added that Maxwell chose to forgo her right to remain silent when she was deposed in 2016.