Judge rejects Ghislaine Maxwell conviction challenge

A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest effort to overturn her sex-trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence, ruling that her claims were meritless, largely barred and, in many instances, frivolous.

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan denied Maxwell’s petition in a 67-page decision made public Tuesday, saying the 64-year-old failed to show that her constitutional rights had been violated. Maxwell, who represented herself, had sought a writ of habeas corpus declaring her punishment unlawful after her December 2021 conviction in federal court.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for helping the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. A federal grand jury indicted her in 2020 on six counts related to facilitating and participating in Epstein’s abuse of minor girls for at least a decade. She was found guilty of five felony counts in December 2021.

Engelmayer described Maxwell’s filing as “lengthy and rambling” and said it “falls very far from the mark.”

“Nearly all its claims are procedurally barred; the overwhelming testimonial and documentary evidence adduced at trial conclusively established her guilt; and her petition’s claims are demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods,” he wrote. “There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial.”

Maxwell argued that Epstein-related documents released earlier this year by the Justice Department supported her claim that she had been wrongly convicted and that her due process rights were violated. She said lawyers representing Epstein’s accusers acted as “De Facto Prosecutors and agents of the government.” Prosecutors called her latest claims baseless or filed too late.

The judge rejected Maxwell’s reliance on the newly released materials. He wrote that the evidence, “far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness” of her conviction and the legal rulings she challenged. NBC News reported that the documents were disclosed through the Epstein Files Transparency Act, while CBS News reported that the Justice Department made public more than 2.5 million pages of material from its Epstein investigation after Congress enacted the law last year.

Engelmayer also said Maxwell, as the “lady of the house” at Epstein’s multiple homes, imposed a culture of silence among staff. He said Maxwell and Epstein used methods commonly used by child predators and that Maxwell herself participated in such acts.

The judge said the vast majority of Maxwell’s arguments were procedurally barred because she either made and lost them on direct appeal or could have raised them then but did not. Her petition also revived arguments over a 2007 nonprosecution agreement between federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein, which Maxwell had previously argued should have barred her prosecution. Under that agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges in Florida and served an 18-month sentence.

Maxwell had already failed in an earlier attempt to overturn her conviction and sentence. Last fall, the Supreme Court declined to hear her appeal focused on the nonprosecution agreement, leaving her conviction and sentence in place.

Engelmayer concluded that Maxwell had not made a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right, that appellate review was not warranted and that any further appeal “would not be taken in good faith.”

Maxwell is serving her sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, CBS News reported. She also appeared virtually before the House Oversight Committee earlier this year but refused to answer questions, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Republican committee Chairman James Comer called the situation “very disappointing,” saying lawmakers had questions about “the crimes she and Epstein committed” and potential co-conspirators.