Nine women file joint lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein's estate
Epstein accusers speak out on 'The Story'; Bryan Llenas has the latest developments.
Recent reports speculating about the whereabouts of former Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell appear to have been grossly exaggerated.
Sources with firsthand knowledge tell Fox News that most of the recent reports, including that Maxwell was in a safe house in the Midwest being guarded by Special Forces operatives, are bogus.
“Ghislaine is similar to many people who live on the coasts,” a friend of Maxwell's said to Fox News, regarding recent reports that she was staying in the middle of the U.S. “She views it derisively. It wouldn’t be her first choice of a place to stay.”
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
“With her British accent and stark looks, she would stand out in Iowa. It’s the Midwest, where people know their neighbors. She definitely wouldn’t want that.”
Reports first surfaced on Sunday that Maxwell was being guarded around the clock by former U.S. Navy SEALs and was moving between safe houses amid, “credible death threats” made against her on a daily basis.
“She is constantly moving. Her life is in danger. She is being guarded by the best of the very best and that includes former U.S. Navy SEALs,” according to a source who spoke with the Daily Mail. “She’s not under the protection of any government. She’s on her own.”
According to the well-placed source who spoke with Fox News, Maxwell is not under any sort of protection.
“When someone says safe house, it would imply that she [Maxwell] is under some kind of government protection. She is not,” the source said.
“She is staying in a house loaned to her by friends or associates. It’s harder to track her. The house isn’t registered to her. The electric bill isn’t in her name. She didn’t sign a lease.”
Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell did not immediately return requests for comment.
Maxwell is a New York City socialite and former girlfriend of Epstein who has long been alleged to have been complicit in helping to operate his sex trafficking ring.
In 2015, victim Virginia Roberts filed a legal complaint in the state of Florida in which she accused Maxwell of being Epstein’s madam, according to an article by The Guardian at the time. In the complaint, in which Roberts was originally listed as “Jane Doe #3”, it was alleged that Roberts was approached in 1999 by Maxwell when she was just 15 and was pursued to sleep with Epstein. Roberts also alleges in the suit that she was used as a “sex slave” for nearly three years.
In December of last year, the New York Post reported that a separate lawsuit was brought against Epstein in Manhattan in which the plaintiff, Sarah Ransome, claimed that both he and Maxwell coerced her into having sex while she was in her 20s.
As recently as last April, a New Jersey woman came forward in a sworn affidavit with accusations of her own against Epstein and Maxwell, according to the Miami Herald.
Maxwell, 57, is the daughter of Robert Maxwell, a disgraced publishing mogul who was accused of theft from his company’s pension funds to prevent bankruptcy. The former owner of the New York Daily News was found dead near the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean just days after he was reported missing from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine.
Maxwell was born and raised in England and immigrated to America in 1991 after her father’s death, becoming a fixture in New York City’s social scene. Maxwell has been photographed over the years hobnobbing with Prince Andrew, the Clintons and Donald Trump.
