Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffery Epstein's Alleged Co-Abuser, Has Been Arrested [UPDATED]

Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who is accused of being Jeffery Epstein’s longtime co-abuser, has been arrested. NBC News reports that Maxwell has been arrested by the FBI in New Hampshire on “Epstein-related charges” and will appear in federal court Thursday afternoon.

Maxwell has been described as both Epstein’s girlfriend and financial partner, but she has also been implicated in the disgraced financier’s sexual abuse of minors.

She is alleged to have helped groom teenage girls for sexual assault and molestation by rich adult men. In 2015, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a woman Maxwell allegedly abused as a teen, named Maxwell in a defamation suit. Other accusations were leveled against Maxwell: In 2017, a woman named Sarah Ransome filed a suit against Maxwell and Epstein, saying that Maxwell hired her to give Epstein massages and threatened to harm her physically and destroy her career prospects if she refused.

In 2019, a woman named Maria Farmer filed a sworn affidavit in federal court accusing Maxwell and Epstein of abusing her and her then 15-year-old sister on multiple occasions in 1996; Maxwell allegedly threatened Farmer after the assault as well. In January of 2020, a lawsuit was filed against Epstein and Maxwell, accusing the two of abusing a 13-year-old music student.

The accusations continue, and it’s hard to pick at a charge against Epstein without finding Maxwell alleged to have been either lurking behind the scenes or front and center. Since Epstein’s arrest and subsequent death in 2019, Maxwell has kept a low profile, but did find time in March to sue the very dead Epstein in an apparent effort to defend herself from the onslaught of sexual abuse allegations.

Update, 12:25 p.m.: Officials from the Southern District of New York have charged Ghislaine Maxwell with helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse and exploit girls from 1994 to 1997.