Friday marked the international socialite’s first court appearance since her dramatic arrest nearly a year ago at a sprawling estate in New Hampshire.
Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of late British publisher Robert Maxwell, on Nov. 7, 1991. (AP Photo/Dominique Mollard, File)
MANHATTAN (CN) Waiving a reading of the new indictment against her, Ghislaine Maxwell pleaded not guilty Friday at a 9-minute, in-person arraignment related to her alleged support of Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious sex ring.
The 59-year-old Brit faces eight criminal counts, up from the previous six, that included grooming teenage victims as young as 14 years old.
While the U.S. government initially charged Maxwell over her involvement with Epstein during the mid-1990s, the expanded time range under the second superseding indictment alleges alleged sex trafficking from 2001 to 2004. Maxwell is accused of roping a fourth underage girl into Epstein’s sphere of abuse during this time.