Accused child abuser and Jeffrey Epstein enabler Ghislaine Maxwell had a COVID-19 scare in federal lockup and is now in quarantine, according to Manhattan prosecutors.
A Metropolitan Detention Center staffer who works in the area where Maxwell is housed tested positive for the virus last week, Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in a letter Monday to Judge Allison Nathan.
On Nov. 18, Maxwell took a rapid test, which was negative, and was placed in quarantine in her cell, where she’s only permitted to leave three days per week for 30 minutes to shower, make calls and send personal emails.
In two weeks, she’ll take another test and, if it’s negative, will come out of isolation, according to the filing.
While she won’t be permitted to have in-person visits with her attorneys, the British socialite can talk to them on the phone every day for up to three hours and continue to use a laptop provided by the government for 13 hours a day to review discovery, the letter says.
“The defendant continues to have more time to review her discovery than any other inmate at the MDC, even while in quarantine,” Comey wrote. “The defendant also has as much, if not more, time as any other MDC inmate to communicate with her attorneys, even while in quarantine.”
Since being locked up without bail in July, Maxwell’s lawyers have complained that she’s been kept under 24/7 surveillance, subjected to frequent body scans and forced to wear special clothes over concerns she will meet the same fate as Epstein, who committed suicide while in custody on similar charges.
Maxwell is awaiting trial on a six-count federal indictment alleging she trafficked underage girls to be abused by her and Epstein.
