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Ghislaine Maxwell pleads not guilty to multiple sex trafficking counts, looks ‘sunken’ and ‘frail’ in court appearance: Report
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The 59-year-old has been in a federal detention center in Brooklyn since her arrest last year on multiple counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy, and perjury.

Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell pleaded not guilty Friday to multiple counts of sex trafficking in Manhattan.

As ABC 13 reports, Maxwell was arraigned on a superseding indictment–an updated indictment that had additional charges on top of the six federal charges in her original indictment. The 59-year-old has been in a federal detention center in Brooklyn since her arrest last year on multiple counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy, and perjury. On Friday she pleaded not guilty to a total of eight counts, including two new charges filed in March related to the alleged sex trafficking of an underage girl in the early 2000s.

Maxwell’s attorneys have requested a continuance of her trial, which was initially expected to begin in July 2021. The defendant has asked for the trial to place in the fall of 2021 or the winter of the following year. The issue of the trial date remains unresolved, as U.S. prosecutors object to the delay, ABC 13 reports.

 In this July 2, 2020, file photo, Audrey Strauss, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

The report also notes that Maxwell’s appearance had changed since her incarceration at the Brooklyn federal jail, where she and her attorneys have claimed she is mistreated. At Friday’s court appearance, Maxwell’s “eyes appeared sunken, her arms frail,” the report states.

Epstein, Maxwell’s longtime friend, took his own life at a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

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[Feature image: Ghislaine Maxwell, center, appears in Manhattan Federal court flanked by her attorneys, Bobbi C. Sternheim, left, and Jeff Paugliuca, right, and a US Marshal, rear, during her arraignment on a superceding indictment, Friday, April 23, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams)]