UPDATE: Ghislaine Maxwell made a brief video appearance at a court hearing this afternoon in New Hampshire. She did not enter a formal plea. She has been remanded to the custody of U.S. Marshals. She will be held in New York City, likely in the same facility--the Metropolitan Correctional Center--where Jeffrey Epstein mysteriously died. Two malfunctioning closed circuit cameras and two lazy guards were cited as reasons for the oversight.

Maxwell faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted. Prosecutors identified her as a high flight risk as she possesses three passports, large sums of cash, and has powerful connections the world over. She was able to make a cash purchase of a multi-million dollar mansion on 156 acres in New Hampshire using a thoroughly disguised LLC.

Maxwell will likely enter a plea at a future hearing in New York. In addition to sexual grooming and abuse charges, she faces several perjury charges as a result of a 2016 deposition in which she repeatedly lied to cover for Epstein.

[The article as originally posted this morning follows below. --Ed.]

The woman who knows all is in federal custody. Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime right hand woman to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, has been arrested by the FBI on charges of conspiring to sexually abuse minors.

The arrest was made at 8:30 a.m. in Bedford, New Hampshire. Maxwell--the daughter of British media mogul and suspected Mossad spy Robert Maxwell--is scheduled to appear in federal court in New Hampshire later today.

Followers of the Epstein saga have been musing for months about the whereabouts of Maxwell. Once Epstein's girlfriend, then best friend, Maxwell became the chief groomer of the stable of girls who serviced the disgraced financier. That the individual with the most inside knowledge of Epstein's empire walked free for nearly a year rankled many.

Why Now?

As some have pointed out, the timing of the arrest is interesting. Journalist Whitney Webb has done perhaps the deepest work on the Epstein case, her forthcoming book is a must-read for any Epstein aficionado. Webb points to the firing of U.S. attorney Geoffrey Berman as the catalyst for the arrest.

Further, Webb claims that Maxwell will be suicided, as she is a liability to the decades-long operation of recording influential persons in sexually compromising situations with minors at Epstein's many properties. The claim would seem a bold one if not for the preponderance of evidence that Epstein did not, in fact, kill himself. That, and the frantic ways in which those in his social and business circles have sought to distance themselves from Epstein, is telling.

Further, as noted in the Daily Beast, Maxwell is facing other lawsuits.

Maxwell is also facing a lawsuit from Jennifer Araoz, who claims Epstein repeatedly sexually assaulted her at his Manhattan townhouse beginning in 2001. At the time, Araoz was 14 and attending New York’s Talent Unlimited High School. She claims Epstein raped her on one occasion when she was 15 years old.

This is an ongoing story, CDMedia will update as new information is made available.

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