Ghislaine Maxwell ‘physically abused’ by jail officer during routine pat-down, her attorneys says

  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Stephen Rex Brown, New York Daily News
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

NEW YORK — Ghislaine Maxwell was “physically abused” during a routine search by a correctional officer at a Brooklyn federal jail and then faced retaliation after complaining, her attorney wrote Tuesday.

The allegation in a Manhattan Federal Court letter from attorney Bobbi Sternheim represented a dramatic escalation of Maxwell’s complaints about conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center. The British socialite is awaiting trial on charges of grooming Jeffrey Epstein’s victims in the mid-1990s.

Maxwell, Sternheim wrote, is subjected to four or five searches daily. An MDC staffer followers her with a hand-held camera whenever she is being moved.

“Recently, out of view of the security camera, Ms. Maxwell was placed in her isolation cell and physically abused during a pat-down search. When she asked that the camera be used to capture the occurrence, a guard replied ‘no.’ When Ms. Maxwell recoiled in pain and when she said she would report the mistreatment, she was threatened with disciplinary action,” Sternheim wrote.

“Ms. Maxwell was the subject of further retaliation for reporting the abuse: a guard ordered Ms. Maxwell into a shower to clean, sanitize, and scrub the walls with a broom. Ms. Maxwell’s request to have the camera record the guard alone with her in the confined space was again denied.”

Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to allegations she normalized Epstein’s sex-trafficking of children and at times joined in the abuse. Since her arrest in July she’s complained Bureau of Prisons officials are going to extreme lengths to prevent her from committing suicide behind bars like Epstein her former boyfriend.

A jail staffer shines a flashlight into her cell, where she’s being held in isolation, every 15 minutes while she sleeps.

“It is hard to verbally convey the power of a light that bounces off a concrete ceiling in a 6-by-9-foot concrete box into Ms. Maxwell’s eyes, disrupting her sleep and ability to have any restful night. The attenuating effects of sleep deprivation are well documented,” Sternheim wrote.

Maxwell, who prosecutors wrote was worth more than $20 million before her arrest, frequently is served inedible food, her attorney said. Water in the jail has recently been brown and “clouded with heavy particulates,” according to the letter.

“The overall conditions of detention have had a detrimental impact on Ms. Maxwell’s health and overall well-being; and she is withering to a shell of her former self — losing weight, losing hair and losing her ability to concentrate,” Sternheim wrote.

Judge Alison Nathan, who has shown concern about Maxwell’s ability to prepare for trial, will consider Sternheim’s letter.

Latest Stories

  • Trump Fans Charged In Capitol Attack Didn't Like Antifa Getting Credit For Their Work

    Capitol attack defendants, lured to D.C. by a mass voter fraud conspiracy theory, didn't like seeing conspiracy theories steal their credit.

  • Brent Bozell IV, Son Of Prominent Conservative Activist, Charged In Capitol Riot

    Online sleuths looked into Bozell because he wore the sweatshirt of a Christian school where he previously served as a girls' basketball coach.

  • Ted Cruz's Tweet About California Energy Shortages Comes Back To Haunt Him

    The Texas senator blasted California's electricity policy when that state faced blackouts last year, but now his own state is in the same boat.

  • St. Louis agrees to $5 million settlement with Black officer beaten by police at protest

    Luther Hall was undercover at a ’17 protest after the acquittal of a cop charged with killing a Black suspect. The city of St. Louis has agreed to a $5 million settlement with a Black police officer who was beaten by five white officers while working undercover at a protest. Luther Hall was participating in a 2017 protest, working undercover following the acquittal of another St. Louis police officer, Jason Stockley, who had been charged in the 2011 murder of a Black man suspected of selling drugs.

  • Most Teachers Say They're Comfortable Going Back To School, But Only With Strict Safety Measures

    A new poll from the American Federation of Teachers finds that teachers support school reopenings, but only if certain conditions are met, including vaccine prioritization.

  • The Deterrent Message Iran Needs to Hear

    On February 15, Iran-backed Shia militia groups in Iraq fired a barrage of missiles — a minimum of 14 — at an American base in Erbil, Iraq. One contractor was killed and five were wounded; one American soldier was wounded. That no American was killed was a matter of luck, it seems. The U.S. reaction has so far been verbal only. Secretary of State Antony Blinken released a statement, saying “We are outraged by today’s rocket attack in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. . . . I have reached out to Kurdistan Regional Government Prime Minister Masrour Barzani to discuss the incident and to pledge our support for all efforts to investigate and hold accountable those responsible.” “Those accountable” are sitting in Tehran, and this is a key test of the Biden administration: If the United States reacts with words alone, the Biden administration will show the Iranians that such attacks are cost-free. The only lesson that Iran’s leaders will learn from such a response is that the Biden administration’s desire to return to nuclear diplomacy will permit Iran to put American lives at risk whenever it wishes. If the U.S. reaction is to strike at the Iraqi Shia group that claimed the attack, it will once again play Tehran’s game. Iran is pleased to allow those proxies to absorb American strikes while it acts with impunity. An Iraqi Shiite group calling itself Saraya Awliya al-Dam, which means “Guardians of Blood Brigade,” said it conducted the attack. Which Iran-backed militia actually carried out the attack is largely irrelevant because Iran controls them all. Proof can be found in the way such militia attacks appear to have been called off by Iran in October. Back then, Iran seemed to fear that if an American were killed and then-President Trump reacted against Iran strongly, Trump might gain popularity and win reelection. Attacks by Iranian-backed Shia groups in the pre-election period did not fall off because they ran out of ammunition or decided to take vacations; there is no other explanation except decisions made in Tehran. In November, December, and January (especially around January 3, the one-year anniversary of the American killing of Quds force head Qasem Soleimani), the U.S. government expected the attacks might recommence. What followed was a successful effort to deter Iran, especially after the one Iranian-backed attack in this period: the rocket attack on the U.S. Embassy in December. While American forces and diplomats in Iraq took great precautions to prevent injuries if attacked, the United States delivered clear messages to Iran both verbally and through the deployment of military force. The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz was kept on station in the region after starting to return home, and there were regular B-52 flights over the Persian Gulf. It is in this context that Trump tweeted on December 23, two days after an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, “Some friendly health advice to Iran: If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.” The messages were clear: If an Iranian proxy killed an American, the U.S. reaction would not target the proxy but would target Iran. What exactly that meant was kept ambiguous; Iran had to calculate risks. And the Iranian regime did so. From the election to the inauguration there was one attack, and after that December attack on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the Iranian proxies desisted. And to repeat, there is only one logical explanation for this: Tehran got the message and instructed them to desist. This background explains why the attack on Americans in Erbil is so important. Iran understood the messages from the United States prior to January 20, but what is the message now? Will we “hold accountable those responsible,” as Blinken said, or will we instead allow Iran to hide behind proxies it controls? If we do the latter, the message to Iran is that such attacks are acceptable — and we can expect more of them. These are efforts to kill Americans, and by killing or wounding American servicemembers and contractors to drive the United States from Iraq. The Biden administration should instead adopt a policy of deterrence, warning Iran that it will be held accountable directly. That messaging, plus a clear willingness to carry through if need be, has worked. It did not reduce attacks to zero, but it significantly depressed their size and frequency — because those must have been the orders from Tehran. Those orders can be sent to the Iraqi Shia militias once again. It all depends on what Tehran hears from Washington. If an American is killed by an Iranian-supported militia and the United States responds, does that mean the end of diplomacy or a wider war? It does not. The United States has a multitude of military options, some of which would clearly signal to Iran that we have no wish to escalate into a larger conflict — but that we insist the Iranian regime stop trying to kill Americans — or else. That’s the message the Biden administration should be sending this week.

  • 20 Years After Breaking Off Our Engagement, My Ex Found Me To Explain Why She Left

    "Because I had no way to explain why our relationship ended the way it did, I never considered what she might be going through or the profound trauma she was experiencing at that time."

  • Deer cross under wildlife friendly fence

    Research video published by the Wyoming Migration Initiative on Wednesday (February 10) shows a group of 20 mule deer as they approach the obstacle and cross to the other side one by one, either by jumping over or walking under the fence, designed to allow wild animals to cross while keeping farm animals coralled.The trail camera footage was taken by student Tanner Warder as part of University of Wyoming research. It captures the mule deer migrating from high elevation mountains after spending their summer in Hoback Basin or the Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming Migration Initiative told Reuters in an email.About 4,000-5,000 mule deer use the migration corridor each year, with some travelling 150 miles (241 kilometre) to the desert from the mountains and have to cross 100 fences on their way.

  • Millions of Texas households are still without power in a brutally cold winter storm. What went wrong?

    The entire state of Texas was under a winter storm warning on Monday, with snow falling throughout the state and single-digit temperatures as far south as Austin and San Antonio. As Texans turned up their heaters on Sunday night, the freezing temperatures took down several power generation plants, prompting the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) — which manages the state's uniquely independent power grid — to order rolling blackouts at 1:25 a.m. Monday, rather than risk a collapse of the entire grid. More than 2 million customers lost electricity by Monday morning, and by Monday night, 4.2 million Texas customers were without power as the temperatures hit record lows, according to PowerOutage.us, a site that tracks power outages nationwide. Texas utilities are warning those households they may not get power until Tuesday afternoon or evening, right before a second storm is forecast to hit. What went wrong? First, Texas isn't set up for extreme cold. "The electricity grid was designed to be in high demand during the summer, when Texans crank their air conditioning at home," The Texas Tribune explains. "Some of the energy sources that power the grid during the summer are offline during the winter." Wholesale power prices on the largely deregulated Texas market shot up over the weekend, prompting power generators to maximize their output, The Wall Street Journal reports. Then non-weatherized wind turbines started freezing and natural gas and coal plants tripped offline. "This weather event, it's really unprecedented," ERCOT senior director of system operations Dan Woodfin said Monday, pointing to the 1940s as the last time Texas faced this combination of Arctic temperatures and wind chills. "Most of the plants that went offline during evening and morning today were fueled" by coal, gas, or nuclear power, he added. About 40 percent of Texas electricity comes from natural gas-fired plants, followed by wind turbines (23 percent), coal (18 percent), and nuclear power (11 percent), the Journal reports, citing ERCOT's 2020 data. With 30 gigawatts of power generation knocked offline — enough to power almost 6 million homes — the rolling blackouts got stuck. The blackouts were supposed to last less than an hour at each household, but "local utilities kept power on to neighborhoods with hospitals, fire stations, and water-treatment plants," the Journal reports. "There was so little extra power that utilities couldn't rotate the blackouts among neighborhoods that didn't have critical infrastructure, leaving some homes without power for more than 12 hours." More stories from theweek.comRepublicans are leaving the light on for TrumpTrump comes out of hiding7 scathingly funny cartoons about Republicans' impeachment cowardice

  • ‘This guy’s career is going to disappear’: Trump’s lawyers turn on each other

    Team had disagreements over strategy, who would speak when, and one reportedly threatened to quit

  • Joe Buck Says He Used To Drink Tequila In Booth With Troy Aikman

    The veteran Fox Sports announcer also liked to sip a giant beer while calling baseball playoff games.

  • U.S. forces in Iraq hit by rockets, contractor killed

    A rocket attack on U.S.-led forces in northern Iraq killed a civilian contractor on Monday and injured a U.S. service member, the U.S. coalition in Iraq said, in the deadliest such attack in almost a year. The attack, claimed by a little-known group that some Iraqi officials say has links with Iran, raises tensions as Washington explores some degree of detente with Tehran. Of the nine other people hurt, eight were civilian contractors and one a U.S. service member, a coalition spokesman said.

  • Elderly Filipino Woman Punched in Unprovoked Attack on San Diego Trolley

    An elderly Filipino woman was assaulted in an unprovoked attack on a San Diego trolley. The suspect, an unidentified man, allegedly punched the woman for no apparent reason, according to ABC 10News. JoAnn Fields, a community advocate and director of the Filipino Resource Center, told ABC 10News that she was upset about the incident.

  • These Kitchen Gadgets Make Cooking Look Good

    We've rounded up seven of the best-designed small kitchen appliances to grace your countertopsOriginally Appeared on Architectural Digest

  • Why Texas' energy grid is unable to handle the winter storms

    “This has been an extraordinary event for Texas,” said Bill Magness, the CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. "

  • 'Fox & Friends' Tells Big Fat Lie About 'Spontaneous' Trump Rally

    Fox News' Pete Hegseth echoed the false claims of Sean Hannity and Donald Trump Jr. about turnout for the ex-president's President's Day motorcade.

  • New Zealand furious at Australia for cancelling citizenship of Islamic State terror suspect with dual nationality

    New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has accused Australia of "exporting its problems" for cancelling the citizenship of a dual national Australian-New Zealander who reportedly joined the Islamic State in Syria On Monday Turkey’s Defence ministry said a 26-year-old New Zealand “Daesh terrorist” was being deported with her two children after Turkish border staff caught them crossing illegally from the northwest Syrian province of Idlib. Media reports identified the woman as Suhayra Aden, who moved to Australia from New Zealand when she was six years old and lived in Melbourne before travelling to Syria on her Australian passport in 2014 to live under the so-called Islamic State. On Tuesday an irate Ms Ardern said she had spoken with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison about the dual national in 2019 after she was detained with her two children after Western-backed Syrian Kurdish forces retook the final sliver of IS territory in Syria. Mr Morrison then revoked Ms Aden’s citizenship without telling Ms Ardern, leaving New Zealand to deal with the dilemma alone. “You can imagine my response,” she said, after learning the next year that Australia had acted unilaterally. “Our very strong view on behalf of New Zealanders was that this individual was clearly most appropriately dealt with in Australia… That is where their family reside, that is where their links reside, and that is the place they departed for Syria,” she said. Ms Ardern said the welfare of Ms Aden’s surviving children, aged five and two, was paramount. “These children were born in a conflict zone through no fault of their own,” Ms Ardern. Ms Aden reportedly had a third child who died of pneumonia, after marrying twice in Syria to Swedish nationals who also both died. Ms Ardern said Australia had “abdicated responsibility” for Ms Aden, who spent most of her life in Australia. “New Zealand, frankly, is tired of having Australia exporting its problems,” Ms Ardern said. “If the shoe were on the other foot we would take responsibility, that would be the right thing to do and I ask Australia to do the same.” But an uncontrite Mr Morrison said his only concern was the safety of Australians. “It’s my job as Australia’s prime minister to put Australia’s national security interests first,” he told a press conference. Australian legislation to automatically cancel citizenship for dual nationals determined to have engaged in terrorism has been used against at least 17 people who reportedly joined IS. The case highlights the unresolved issue of tens of thousands of prisoners left in limbo following the territorial defeat of IS. Most are held in squalid conditions in the Al-Hol near the Iraqi border, though following hundreds of escapes from the sprawling camp authorities last year moved dozens of Western prisoners to the smaller and more secure Roj camp. At one time up to 66 Australians, including 44 children, were believed to be in the camps, though the Australian government repatriated eight children in June 2019, and others may have escaped. One New Zealand man is known to be detained in northeast Syria. Mark Taylor, who became known as the Bumbling Jihadi for revealing his location in posts calling for attacks on New Zealanders, has been held in a Kurdish jail since surrendering in late 2018. Earlier this month a group of United Nations experts called on the 57 governments who are believed to have nationals in the camps to repatriate their citizens, following reports that 20 people were murdered in Al-Hol in January.

  • Chinatown Shop Owner Stops Robbery By Firing 4 Shots at Suspects in Oakland

    A store owner intervened in a robbery attempt outside their store by opening fire on the suspect in Oakland’s Chinatown. The store owner saw the suspect knocking down and attempting to steal a camera from a woman in her 30s at 9th and Franklin streets around 6 p.m. on Monday, according to KTVU. The store owner intervened and after a struggle, fired four gunshots at the suspect.

  • Marjorie Taylor Greene calls for armed troops to be placed in schools on Parkland anniversary

    The National Guard was in Washington DC in response to the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters

  • More Republicans blame Biden for Capitol riot than fault Trump

    Former President Donald Trump is already being rehabilitated in Republicans' minds. In the days after hundreds of Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol building, the outgoing president's approval rating was at an all-time low. Republicans who once indicated they'd support him in 2024 were pulling away. A good fifth of his own party supported impeachment, and even more blamed him for the attack. But more than a month and an impeachment acquittal later, that has changed, a Morning Consult/Politico poll out Tuesday reveals. While just 42 percent of Republicans said they'd support Trump in a potential 2024 run just days after the riot, 54 percent said this past weekend they'd back him again — the same proportion that supported Trump in the weeks after the 2020 election. Trump Emerges From Impeachment Trial With Sturdy Backing From GOP Voters https://t.co/fygcXv0eGd via @eyokley pic.twitter.com/A2prSeGot3 — Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) February 16, 2021 Republicans have also shifted the blame for the Capitol riot over the past few weeks. While 47 percent of the GOP said Trump was at least partly responsible for the riot when asked Jan. 6–7, just 27 percent said so when asked Feb. 14–15. Now, 46 percent of those Republican respondents actually blamed President Biden and 58 percent blamed Democrats in Congress. Just 27 percent blamed Republicans in Congress — many of whom had challenged the Jan. 6 electoral college vote certification. Even before this poll was released, Trump's allies saw his reputation was back on the rise, and were amazed at just how quickly it was happening. Morning Consult surveyed 1984 registered voters online Feb. 14–15, with a margin of error of two percent. More stories from theweek.comRepublicans are leaving the light on for TrumpTrump comes out of hiding7 scathingly funny cartoons about Republicans' impeachment cowardice