Ghislaine Maxwell & Jeffrey Epstein
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York reported on Monday that Ghislaine Maxwell is in quarantine after a staffer working in her area of pre-trial lockup contracted the coronavirus.
Maxwell herself has tested negative and is not exhibiting symptoms.
“Last week, a staff member who was assigned to work in the area of the MDC where the defendant is housed tested positive for COVID-19,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in a two-page letter, using the shorthand for Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center. “In response, the MDC implemented the same quarantine protocols that apply whenever an inmate has potentially been exposed to the virus. Specifically, on November 18, 2020, the defendant was tested for COVID-19 using a rapid test, which was negative. That same day, the defendant was placed in quarantine.”
“As with any other quarantined inmate, the defendant will remain in quarantine for fourteen days, at which point she will be tested again for COVID-19,” the letter went on. “If that test is negative, she will then be released from quarantine. To date, the defendant has not exhibited any symptoms of COVID-19.”
According to the Bureau of Prisons, Metropolitan Detention Center currently has six active COVID-19 cases among staff and one inmate infection. Maxwell is awaiting trial there following her federal indictment for allegedly grooming underaged girls for sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in a different prison—Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center—in August 2019.
Jailhouse authorities in Brooklyn are taking no chances to avoid the same fate for his accused confederate.
“During her time in quarantine, the defendant will be housed in the same cell where she was already housed before she was placed in quarantine, and medical staff and psychology staff will continue to check on the defendant every day,” the letter states.
Some allowances must be made for her pre-trial preparations.
“Like all other MDC inmates in quarantine, the defendant will be permitted out of her cell three days per week for thirty minutes,” prosecutors wrote. “During that time, the defendant may shower, make personal phone calls, and use the CorrLinks email system. In addition, the defendant will continue to be permitted to make legal calls every day for up to three hours per day. These calls will take place in a room where the defendant is alone and where no MDC staff can hear her communications with counsel.”
Maxwell’s attorneys did not respond to a different press inquiry earlier today, in response to the release of deposition excerpts by Epstein’s former house manager John Alessi who testified that Maxwell “constantly” took photographs of topless girls brought to his boss’s pool.
[image of Maxwell via Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images; image of Epstein via mugshot]
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