On Wednesday, Ghislaine Maxwell appealed to a federal court to overturn her conviction for sex trafficking and her subsequent 20-year prison sentence. This conviction was linked to her role in assisting Jeffrey Epstein in the exploitation of underage girls.
Maxwell, who is representing herself, submitted a habeas petition to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. She argued that recent developments in related lawsuits, along with new reports and governmental disclosures, prove that her imprisonment is unjustified.
“The accumulation of these constitutional breaches has resulted in a severe miscarriage of justice, making my conviction invalid, unsafe, and unsteady,” Maxwell claimed in her filing.
This legal maneuver might influence the full disclosure of the so-called “Epstein files.” This set of investigative documents was collected by federal authorities on the late financier and is due for public release by Friday, as mandated by new legislation passed by Congress. The law, however, includes clauses to prevent the release of information that might interfere with ongoing investigations and legal proceedings.
Maxwell’s conviction was upheld by the federal appeals court in September 2024, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case in October of the same year.
With her legal options dwindling, the 63-year-old Maxwell cited nine reasons in her habeas petition for deeming her conviction unconstitutional. Among these are claims that the prosecution withheld evidence. She also reiterated points from her unsuccessful appeal, such as the bias of certain jurors due to their personal experiences with sexual abuse. Additionally, Maxwell argued that the lenient plea deal Epstein received in the late 2000s should have prevented her prosecution.
Maxwell also framed as new evidence that should clear her name recent comments by victims’ lawyers indicating 25 men who’d never been prosecuted had reached settlements with Epstein accusers.
Maxwell has long maintained she was scapegoated after Epstein was found dead in August 2019 while awaiting trial in jail custody, and that the feds could no longer hold him to account. Her new legal filing argued former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr “admitted that post Epstein’s death they were looking for someone to indict for trafficking.”
Epstein’s longtime right-hand — who holds British, French, and U.S. citizenship — was found guilty in December 2021 of sex trafficking, conspiracy, and related counts after prosecutors argued she had groomed teenage girls and young women to be sexually trafficked, abused, and exploited by Epstein inside his lavish properties for at least a decade beginning in 1994.
Four women testified at the trial, one of whom, Carolyn Andriano, testified about first being abused by Epstein when she was 14. Andriano died of a drug overdose in 2023.
Maxwell is serving out her sentence at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, where she was moved this summer from a less cushy setup at a maximum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. The unusual transfer came after she sat down with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, President Trump’s former personal lawyer.
Maxwell did not implicate the president over two days of the unusual interviews. If her new approach fails, a commutation from Trump may be her only chance at release.
The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment.
