Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 115 Filed 01/14/21 Page 1 of 2¶
COHEN & GRESSER LLP¶
800 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 +1 212 957 7600 phone www.cohengresser.com¶
Christian R. Everdell¶
January 14, 2021¶
BY ECF¶
The Honorable Alison J. Nathan¶
United States District Court¶
Southern District of New York¶
United States Courthouse¶
40 Foley Square¶
New York, NY 10007¶
Re: United States v. Ghislaine Maxwell, 20 Cr. 330 (AJN)¶
Dear Judge Nathan:¶
We write on behalf of our client, Ghislaine Maxwell, to respectfully request that the Court order the Bureau of Prisons to give Ms. Maxwell access to the laptop computer provided by the government so that she can review discovery on weekends and holidays.¶
At the request of defense counsel, the government provided Ms. Maxwell with a laptop computer to review the voluminous discovery, which was produced on a series of external hard drives. Currently, Ms. Maxwell is given access to the laptop only on weekdays. On weekends and holidays, Ms. Maxwell must use the prison computer on her floor to review discovery. However, the prison computer is not equipped with the software necessary to read large portions of the discovery recently produced by the government. As a result, Ms. Maxwell loses several days of review time every weekend and every holiday because she does not have access to the laptop. If Ms. Maxwell is to have any hope of reviewing the millions of documents produced in discovery so that she can properly prepare her defense by the July 12, 2021 trial date, she must have access to the laptop every day, including weekends and holidays.¶
Defense counsel has raised this issue with the government and it has no objection to Ms. Maxwell having access to the laptop seven days a week. At the request of defense counsel, the government has contacted officials at the MDC on several occasions in the past few weeks to request that they lift this restriction, but without success.¶
There is no principled justification for this restriction. Ms. Maxwell was given access to the laptop every day (including weekends and the Thanksgiving holiday) for the entire 14-day period that she was quarantined in her isolation cell in November-December 2020 because she had come into close contact with a member of the MDC staff who had tested positive for COVID. In addition, the laptop is kept in a locker in the same room where the prison computer is located, so it¶
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Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 115 Filed 01/14/21 Pr¶
The Honorable Alison J. Nathan January 14, 2021¶
would not require any change in Ms. Maxwell’s movements to give her the requested access. Furthermore, on at least three occasions since she was released from quarantine, Ms. Maxwell’s security team gave her the laptop to review discovery on the weekend.¶
There is clearly no actual impediment preventing the MDC staff from providing Ms. Maxwell access to the laptop on weekends and holidays. Given the millions of documents that Ms. Maxwell must review before trial in order to prepare her defense, it is critical that she be given as much time as possible with the laptop to review the discovery. We therefore respectfully request that the Court order the BOP to give Ms. Maxwell access to the laptop on weekends and holidays during the hours that she is permitted to review discovery.¶
Sincerely,¶
/s/ Christian Everdell¶
Christian R. Everdell¶
COHEN & GRESSER LLP¶
800 Third Avenue, 21st Floor¶
New York, New York 10022¶
cc: All Counsel of Record (By ECF)¶
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