Judge cites Ghislaine Maxwell as a flight risk, denies bail
Reaction from Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera and criminal defense attorney Jonna Spilbor.
Fox News correspondent-at-large Geraldo Rivera accused the New York federal judge presiding over Ghislaine Maxwell's case of "copping out to the mob" Tuesday after she denied the British socialite's bail request as she awaits trial on sex trafficking charges.
"I think this was a political decision," Rivera asserted on "Bill Hemmer Reports". "I think that the question is not whether she committed these hideous offenses. The question is whether or not she would show up for trial. She bought a house in New Hampshire, for goodness’ sakes. She went to all this trouble to stay in the country.
"They could take her passports," he went on. "That’s standard operating procedure."
MAXWELL DENIED BAIL: 'SUBSTANTIAL FLIGHT RISK'
Rivera added the coronavirus risks in the "awful" Brooklyn detention center, as well as the "very suspicious" circumstances surrounding Jeffrey Epstein's death should have been enough to secure the 58-year-old's release.
"It doesn’t make any sense," he said before claiming that prosecutors in the case "are doing this to put pressure on her."
"They are punishing her before conviction," Rivera argued. "She has never been held liable in a civil suit, never been convicted of a crime. She is not Jeffrey Epstein. I think this is a terrible, punitive decision."
Criminal defense attorney Jonna Spilbor largely agreed with Rivera, accusing U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan of lacking the "courage to do what was really right in this. "
Nathan ruled Tuesday that Maxwell, accused of sexually abusing and exploiting young girls alongside the late convicted pedophile Epstein, posed too great a flight risk to be allowed to leave.
The judge emphasized that "no combination of conditions" could ensure that Maxwell wouldn't try to leave the country, noting her "foreign connections" and adding that she exhibited an "extraordinary capacity to evade detection."
"We are not supposed to discriminate against people, not in our criminal justice system, based on whether they have money or don’t have money," Spilbor said.
MAXWELL WRAPPED HER PHONE IN TIN FOIL TO EVADE LAW ENFORCEMENT: FEDS
Rivera argued that Maxwell was not evading law enforcement, but was rather laying low to avoid tabloids and the press.
"She was hiding from the Daily Mail," he said, "She was hiding from “The New York Post, she was hiding from the National Enquirer, she was one of the most sought after -- with the exception of Meghan Markle -- the most sought after tabloid figure in the country. "
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"Remember, these charges relate to offenses that happened 25 years ago, from 1994 to 1997," Rivera concluded. "I think these are charges that are wobbly on their face and for this judge to chicken out and not give this defendant bail I think is copping out to the mob."
Maxwell's trial date is set for July 2021 and is expected to last two weeks.
Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty, and Marta Dhanis contributed to this report.
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