NEW YORK — Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, asked a judge on Friday to grant her release from federal custody, saying her supporters would endorse a $5 million bail bond and that she would consent to monitored home confinement while awaiting trial.

In their response to a detention memo filed by the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, Maxwell’s lawyers sought to counter federal prosecutors’ characterization of her as Epstein’s enabler and a flight risk. Attorney Mark S. Cohen wrote that she has been wrongly targeted, that attention erroneously shifted from Epstein to Maxwell after his death in federal custody. He described the pair as estranged, saying “she’d had no contact with Epstein for more than a decade.”

“Ghislaine Maxwell is not Jeffrey Epstein,” Cohen wrote. He noted that she has no arrest history and was never found liable in a lawsuit. Maxwell, Cohen added, denies “any allegations of claimed misconduct.”

The court brief says Maxwell has the firm support of friends and family.

“Two of her sisters, who have agreed to co-sign her bond, live in the United States, and they have several children who are U.S.-born citizens,” Cohen wrote, adding that Maxwell “is very close with her sisters and maintains regular contact with them, as well as with her nieces and nephews.” Maxwell is also godmother to children of close friends, he said.

Maxwell’s arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday in Manhattan. She is expected to appear via video from the Brooklyn detention center where she’s being held. Judge Alison Nathan is expected to hear arguments over her bail request at that time.

Maxwell, 58, was arrested in New Hampshire on July 2 on charges she exploited teenage girls in the 1990s by providing them to Epstein after recruiting and grooming them to engage in sex acts with him. She was taken into custody about a year after Epstein’s arrest on sex trafficking charges. He committed suicide in August at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, after which prosecutors here vowed to continue the investigation of anyone who may have acted as an accomplice.

Maxwell faces up to 35 years in prison. Officials have said that, at the time of her arrest, she was living at a large, secluded home in Bradford, N.H., having purchased the 156-acre property with cash in December. Citing her wealth and international ties, prosecutors have argued that Maxwell should not be released from custody.

“The strength of the Government’s evidence and the substantial prison term the defendant would face upon conviction all create a strong incentive for the defendant to flee,” says the detention memo signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alison Moe.

The French-born socialite, whose late father was a British media mogul, has been a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2002 and has lived in the United States for three decades, Cohen wrote in the court brief. She also has British citizenship. Cohen noted that Maxwell did not flee or travel internationally after Epstein’s arrest last year, despite having been accused in lawsuits of participating in his child exploitation.

Cohen also argued that Maxwell should be released because of coronavirus concerns. He wrote that, in addition to the health risk she faces while in custody, in-person lawyer visits are off-limits, jeopardizing their ability to prepare her defense.

In announcing Maxwell’s indictment last week, acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss accused her of having “normalized” underage girls’ sexual involvement with a much older man. Epstein, who owned lavish homes in New York, Florida, the Caribbean and elsewhere, was 66 when he died.

Prosecutors say Maxwell in some cases arranged for girls to travel to Epstein’s properties and other destinations. She’s also accused of sometimes participating in sex acts with the victims and lying about what she knew of Epstein’s activities, an allegation traced to a sworn deposition she gave as part of a lawsuit brought by one of Epstein’s accusers.

A wealthy financier with deep political connections, he had previously resolved similar allegations through a plea deal widely criticized as overly lenient. Epstein’s accusers have expressed hope that Maxwell will help authorities shed light on his dealings with other wealthy and influential people who may have had encounters with underage victims.