Ghislaine Maxwell offers to give up British citizenship to get out of jail

British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has offered to give up her UK and French citizenships to get out of jail.

Ms Maxwell stands accused of facilitating financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of underage women. Ms Maxwell's trial is scheduled to begin in July, one year after her initial arrest. She faces up to 35 years in prison.

Ms Maxwell's lawyers have twice attempted to secure bail for her and get her out of jail, but the requests have been denied as the judge has deemed Ms Maxwell to be a flight risk. Now she's offering to give up her other passports and says she has no interest in leaving the US, where she has lived for the last 30 years.

She was charged in July with helping Mr Epstein recruit three teenage girls for sex. He killed himself in a New York City jail in August 2019, where he was waiting to stand trial for multiple alleged sex crimes more than a decade after being convicted for soliciting prostitution from a minor, the BBC writes.

In a Tuesday court motion, Ms Maxwell's lawyers wrote: “If the court deems it a necessary condition of release, Ms Maxwell will formally commence the procedure to renounce her foreign citizenship."

The lawyers argue that this “should satisfy any concerns the court may have that Ms Maxwell may try to seek a safe haven in France or the United Kingdom”.

The lawyers said the move to renounce her UK citizenship could be pushed through immediately after she's granted bail, and while the French process is not as fast, it could be "expedited".

Ms Maxwell's lawyers also suggested that she and her husband's assets be put into an account that could be monitored to stop them from using their resources to allow her to flee the country.

In December, yet another idea for her release was put forward, that time that she was to be released under the supervision of armed guards. Prosecutors said at the time that she could use her resources to flee the country to the UK or France and use her citizenships to evade extradition to the US, the BBC reported.

Born in France in 1961 as the daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell grew up in the UK and became close to Mr Epstein in the 1999s, according to The Guardian.

The BBC writes that they were in a relationship and that she introduced Mr Epstein to numerous powerful people, including Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.

Ms Maxwell was arrested in July in New England after she had been keeping a low profile in the small town of Bradford in New Hampshire with 1,700 residents, The Boston Globe reported.

Ms Maxwell was charged with a number of sex crimes, including conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Four of the charges against Ms Maxwell are in connection to events that took place between 1994 and 1997. Prosecutors say that she groomed girls as young as 14 for sex. Two other charges are perjury allegations from 2016. If convicted in her July trial, she could spend up to 35 years in prison, according to the BBC.

Read More

Ghislaine Maxwell makes third attempt at bail on sex charges

Ghislaine Maxwell timeline: The life of the Jeffrey Epstein associate accused of sex trafficking

Ghislaine Maxwell ‘told reporter that Epstein had tapes of Trump and Clinton’

Ghislaine Maxwell ‘physically abused by prison guard’

Ghislaine Maxwell blames her arrest on Jeffrey Epstein’s death