A federal judge in Manhattan has shut down Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest attempt to erase her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
In a decision made public, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer rejected Maxwell’s bid in sweeping terms, writing that her arguments were all meritless and that all or nearly all were frivolous.
Engelmayer said Maxwell largely recycled points she either already lost on or never raised when challenging her December 2021 conviction. He also found that much of what she described as “new” evidence—disclosed this year under the Epstein Files Transparency Act—did not matter to the legal questions before the court.
“On the contrary, to the extent it is relevant, far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges,” Judge Engelmayer wrote in a 67-page decision.
The judge also dismissed Maxwell’s assertion that prosecutors illegally withheld evidence, calling the claim “conclusory, cynical, and wrong”.
Maxwell represented herself.
Engelmayer said any appeal “would not be taken in good faith,” and ruled that the court would not cover her filing fees if she claimed she could not afford them.
A jury convicted Maxwell on five charges tied to recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004, following a trial held before a different judge.
Prosecutors called Maxwell’s claims baseless, late
Maxwell had asked the court for a writ of habeas corpus declaring her punishment unlawful.
Her petition amounted to the broadest effort yet by the former British socialite and Epstein girlfriend to undo her conviction—the most significant successful prosecution to emerge from the Epstein scandal.
Maxwell previously pursued a separate appeal centered on Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement, which led to his 2008 guilty plea in Florida state court to a prostitution charge.
The US Supreme Court rejected that appeal last October.
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which prosecuted Maxwell, declined to comment.
Prosecutors had urged the judge to reject Maxwell’s new filing, arguing her claims were baseless, brought too late, or did not demonstrate that her trial was unfair.
Maxwell called victims’ lawyers ‘de facto prosecutors’
In her latest challenge, Maxwell argued that documents released this year under the Epstein files law showed that attorneys for Epstein’s accusers acted as “De Facto Prosecutors and agents of the government”.
She also contended that prosecutors failed to conduct a meaningful investigation themselves, pointing in part to their decision not to interview Leslie Wexner, the retail billionaire behind Victoria’s Secret who hired Epstein to manage his personal finances.
Mr Wexner, aged 88, told Congress in February he severed ties with Epstein in 2007 and did not know about Epstein’s crimes.
Maxwell further objected to what she described as gaps in witness testimony, and alleged government suppression of potentially exculpatory grand jury testimony by a Palm Beach, Florida police detective concerning a green massage table at Epstein’s villa there.
Epstein died at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019, five weeks after being arrested on sex trafficking charges.
New York City’s medical examiner called the death a suicide.
Maxwell is housed at a minimum-security federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
She is eligible for release in July 2037, when she will be 75.
