Ghislaine Maxwell‘s family are planning to be at her arraignment later this month meaning that she could see her husband in person from across the courtroom.
The alleged ‘madam’ for Jeffrey Epstein has requested a week’s delay to April 23rd to formally plead to two additional charges at federal court in New York
A document filed by her lawyers states that this is to enable her ‘family members to adjust their schedules and make travel arrangements to attend the court proceedings’.
Maxwell, pictured with former lover Jeffrey Epstein, is on suicide watch at a detention centre
From L to R: Anne 73, Kevin 62, Twins: Isabel & Christine 70, Philip 71, Ian 64 and in front Ghislaine, 59, taken in London in June 2019. A month after it was taken, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and Ghislaine went into hiding with her husband, Scott Borgerson
Husband Scott Borgerson could travel 250 miles from his home outside Boston to his wife’s arraignment. He is pictures here last July at his house in Manchester By the Sea
The letter does not say who is planning to come and lawyers for Maxwell did not immediately return requests for comment.
But it opens up the possibility that Scott Borgerson, Maxwell’s husband, will travel 250 miles from his home just outside Boston to show his support.
Maxwell’s twin sisters Isabel and Christine Maxwell could come as well as they are US citizens.
The British socialite’s brother Ian and Kevin would have to get special dispensation to enter the country as they are British.
Appearing in person would be the boldest move yet by the Maxwell family who have been engaged in a public PR campaign to have her freed from custody after a federal judge denied her bail three times.
Ian Maxwell, pictured, has said his sister Ghislaine is a victim of hate and that she is being treated far worse than convicted male sex offenders such as Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein
Little has been seen of Borgerson, right, since Maxwell’s arrest and the 44-year-old has stepped down from his tech company CargoMetrics to avoid being a ‘distraction’
Due to the coronavirus most hearings in the Southern District of New York are taking place via Zoom or through a dial-in phone line.
But Maxwell’s lawyers have previously called a hearing in a previous case that was handled in such a way a ‘debacle’ because hundreds of QAnon followers filled up all the lines.
By demanding an in-person hearing they are turning something that is normally a formality into an event which they can use to argue their case in the court of public opinion.
The letter from Maxwell’s lawyer Laura Menninger states that the ‘tentative’ April 16 date for Maxwell to plead to the new charges of sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor is a week too soon.
The letter states: ‘Counsel appreciates that an in-person arraignment requires some logistical arrangements which may be accommodated by the requested date.
A court sketch of Ghislaine Maxwell after she appeared via video link during her arraignment last July where she was denied bail for her alleged role in aiding Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and eventually abuse of minor girls
Ghislaine Maxwell faces new charges during a time when Prince Andrew became friends with Epstein and allegedly had sex three times with one of his victims, Virginia Roberts, allegations the Duke denies. Andrew is pictured with Virginia Roberts, aged 17, and Maxwell in 2001
‘Further, the extra time will permit Ms. Maxwell’s family members to adjust their schedules and make travel arrangements to attend the court proceedings’.
Little has been seen of Borgerson since Maxwell’s arrest and the 44-year-old has stepped down from his tech company CargoMetrics to avoid being a ‘distraction’.
It is unclear if he has visited Maxwell in the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where she is being held.
There is a higher chance they have had a video call which Maxwell is being allowed while in custody.
Elisabeth and Robert Maxwell with their children Kevin, Philip, Ian, Anne, Christine, Isabel and Ghislaine Maxwell (to the left of Robert Maxwell). The picture was taken during the early 1980s
The most fulsome public comment from Borgerson was a letter which was part of Maxwell’s second bail application in which the couple put up all $22.5m assets as collateral to get her out.
Borgerson’s letter stated: ‘The person described in the criminal charges is not the person we know. I have never witnessed anything close to inappropriate with Ghislaine. Quite to the contrary, the Ghislaine I know is a wonderful and loving person’.
In the three-page letter, Borgerson wrote that ‘ferocious media aggression’ prevented him from coming forward as a co-signer of his wife’s first bail application.
He said that Twitter comments have been ‘particularly galling’ and ‘disgusting’ and that he feared somebody may attack him.
Borgerson wrote: ‘Her arrest came as a shock…..I believe that Ghislaine had nothing to do with Epstein’s crimes’.
Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein, and musician Michael Bolton pose for a portrait during a party at the Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, February 2000
Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers have repeatedly and vocally complained about her treatment in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn (pictured) where she is being held awaiting trial
Maxwell’s brother Ian has given numerous media interviews in which he has claimed Maxwell is losing weight, her hair and is being woken up every night with a flashlight every 15 minutes.
However he may have trouble getting into the US as the border remains closed to non-citizens or permanent residents without approval from the authorities.
Maxwell’s last court appearance was in July last year and was held via Zoom from a room in the prison where she is being held.
She appeared well and alert but wiped a tear from her eye when Judge Alison Nathan remanded her in custody.
Maxwell, 59, now faces eight counts and has pleaded not guilty to the six previous ones which related to enticing children to Epstein to abuse and perjury.
What became of Robert Maxwell’s nine children?
Robert Maxwell (back row, centre) pictured with his wife Betty (sat with youngest daughter Ghislaine on her knee) and seven of their eight children at home in Headington Hill Hall, Oxford. When this photo was taken Ian (5) was 11 years old and attending preparatory school, while Isabel, then 17 (4) was at grammar school with their sister Christine (3), and youngest son Kevin, 8, (6) was at preparatory school. Second oldest son Philip, (1), had entered his second undergraduate yer at Balliol College, Oxford, while Anne (2) was also studying at the university, but at St Hugh’s College.
1. Philip, 71, the brilliant scientist who fled to Argentina
Philip Maxwell
‘Poor Philip’, as his friends always knew him, was a brilliant scientist and mathematician who won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, aged just 16.
But he so loathed his domineering father that, as soon as he could, Philip fled to Argentina to get ‘as far away from [him] as possible’.
The pair fell out irretrievably when he married Nilda, an Argentine, in 1977, against Robert’s wishes.
The marriage didn’t last — Nilda moved out taking their daughter Marcella with her and a second marriage also failed.
Philip was last heard of living in a £65-a-week flat in North London trying to be a writer. The subject? His bullying father.
2. Anne, 73, ex-actress called ‘ugly’ by her father
Anne Maxwell
When her fledgling acting career floundered, her father’s reaction was: ‘What have you and Pope John Paul II got in common? You’re both ugly and you’re both failed actors.’
Having studied Italian and French at Oxford, she then trained as a Montessori teacher, married an osteopath and is now believed to be a hypnotherapist in Surrey, practising under another name.
She has kept out of the limelight since her father’s death at the age of 68.
3. Christine, 70, one of the twins
Christine Maxwell
Christine and her twin sister Isabel made The Sunday Times Rich List in 1999 after amassing their £100 million in the dotcom boom.
She is the author of The Dictionary Of Perfect Spelling (a book with 20,000 words aimed at secondary school pupils) and is married to a Roger Malina, an astrophysicist at a French university.
They have two sons and a daughter and split their time between a Spanish-style mansion overlooking San Francisco and Aix-en-Provence in the South of France.
4. Isabel, 70, the second twin
Isabel Maxwell
Once described in The Jerusalem Post as ‘a fireball’ who is ‘always in your face’, Isabel was always the Maxwell to watch.
She never wanted to join the family firm, so after graduating from Oxford with a degree in modern languages, followed by a masters from Edinburgh, she became a TV reporter.
In 1981, she moved to California to work in TV before making a film set in 1968 starring rock singer Neil Young. ‘It wasn’t ET,’ she said, ‘. . . more a labour of love.’
But technology was her future. She and twin Christine co-founded one of the earliest internet search engines, known as Magellan, in 1992.
5. Ian, 64, the ‘fall guy’ brother
Ian Maxwell
Taunted mercilessly at home — his father would ridicule him in front of visiting friends. When he joined the family business, he was compared unfavourably to his younger brother, Kevin.
In the aftermath, of their father’s death, Ian, then 35, and Kevin, 32, assumed control of the company and stood trial for their part in their father’s £460 million pension fraud.
They were acquitted, but the Maxwell name was mud for years and business opportunities were limited to overseas ventures. Ian’s first wife was an American former college basketball star and model called Laura Marie Plumb.
They met when she moved to London to help set up a TV cable company. The couple married in 1991 — the year of Robert Maxwell’s death — and the ensuing media attention put Laura under great strain. On the day that Ian and Kevin were arrested, she was photographed sobbing. The couple divorced in 1996.
6. Kevin, 62, Britain’s biggest ever bankrupt
Kevin Maxwell
The cleverest son and driving force of the family, Kevin was crestfallen by his father’s death, saying that he ‘missed his presence and ability to dominate’. He admitted to being totally in awe of him.
The only Maxwell sibling ever to express remorse in public for the fallout from Robert Maxwell’s crimes, Kevin made reference to the ‘moral burden I will bear for the rest of my life’.
His first wife, Pandora Warnford-Davis called her father-in-law Robert the ‘fat fraudster’.
When, in June 1992, Kevin was arrested and charged with fraud after hundreds of millions disappeared from the Maxwell empire’s employee pension funds, she appeared at the window of their home at dawn and shouted: ‘P*** off, or I’ll call the police!’ only to realise the early morning callers were the police.
In 2007, they divorced after 23 years and seven children together. Pandora was last heard of living in Oxford, renting out a room through Airbnb.
Soon after his arrest, Kevin became Britain’s biggest ever bankrupt when a £407 million bankruptcy order was made against him.
7. Ghislaine, 59, Jeffery
Ghislaine Maxwell
Known for her association with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein, Ghislaine previously worked for her father until his death in 1991.
When he died, she moved to the United States and became a close associate of Epstein, and also founded a non-profit group focused on protecting the oceans – The Terra Marr Project.
However, it ceased operations on July 12, 2019, a week after the sex trafficking charges against Epstein – her former boyfriend – were brought by New York federal prosecutors and made public.
In 2020, Ghislaine herself was charged by the US government with the crimes of enticement of minors and sex trafficking of underage girls, and she has faced a number of accusations. She has denied them all.
Ghislaine was arrested in in Bradford, New Hampshire by the FBI on 2 July 2020, and has been jailed ever since.
Michael, Ghislaine’s oldest brother
Robert and Betty Maxwell’s first-born fell into a coma aged 15 after a car crash in 1961 and died eight years later, never having regained consciousness.
Karine, the middle sister
Died of leukaemia aged just three in 1957.
