Middleboro Review 2

Monday, July 13, 2020

TomDispatch

Disturbingly amusing story of the arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell. She wrapped her phone in foil in an attempt to avoid detection. 

—Erika

When F.B.I. agents went to arrest Ghislaine Maxwell on the morning of July 2 on a remote property in New Hampshire, they broke through her locked gate, approached the front door and announced themselves, telling her to open the door, federal prosecutors said in newly filed court papers on Monday.

Through a window, the agents saw her ignore their order and flee to another room in the house, quickly shutting the door behind her, the prosecutors wrote.

The agents forcibly entered and took Ms. Maxwell into custody. Prosecutors said that during a search of the house, investigators found a cellphone wrapped in tin foil on top of a desk — which they interpreted as “a seemingly misguided effort to evade detection” by law enforcement.

“As these facts make plain, there should be no question that the defendant is skilled at living in hiding,” the prosecutors wrote.

The government’s court filing came one day before a hearing in Manhattan on Ms. Maxwell’s request for bail.

In their filing, prosecutors sought to undermine a key argument made by Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers last week in seeking her release on bail, that she had been trying to evade “unrelenting and intrusive media coverage” rather than law enforcement.

Ms. Maxwell, 58, faces six counts that include transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and perjury. She has denied any wrongdoing.

She had been in living in hiding, most recently in Bradford, N.H., in the mansion where she was arrested, prosecutors said. They said it was located on a 156-acre property that was acquired in an all-cash purchase in December by a limited liability company that concealed the buyer’s identity.

After Ms. Maxwell’s arrest, a private security guard who worked on the property told the F.B.I. that he was given a credit card in the same name as the L.L.C. to make purchases on Ms. Maxwell’s behalf, the prosecutors said in their filing Monday. The guard told the agents that Ms. Maxwell did not leave the property at all during his time there, according to prosecutors.