Judge rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's effort to overturn sex-trafficking conviction

Washington — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's effort to toss out her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges and 20-year prison sentence.

In a 67-page decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in the Southern District of New York denied Maxwell's petition for relief, writing that she failed to make a substantial showing that her constitutional rights were denied. The judge said claims raised by Maxwell were "meritless" and "frivolous."

"The vast majority are procedurally barred — either because Maxwell made and lost the same arguments on direct appeal, or because she could have made such arguments on appeal but elected not to do so," he wrote. 

Engelmayer said that new evidence that Maxwell raised in her petition, including recently released documents from the federal investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, "incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges." The judge called her filing "lengthy and rambling."

After Congress enacted the Epstein Files Transparency Act last year, the Justice Department made public more than 2.5 million pages of material from its investigation into Epstein.

"Maxwell's petition falls very far from the mark," Engelmayer wrote. "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. There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial."

Maxwell asked Engelmayer last December to vacate her conviction, rehashing evidence in the government's case against her and pointing to alleged issues with her prosecution. She pointed to a piece of evidence that she claimed was exculpatory and was not made available to her ahead of her trial, and a long gap between the allegations against her and her indictment. 

Her petition also raised the 2007 nonprosecution agreement between federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein, which Maxwell previously argued barred her prosecution. That deal arose after a federal investigation into allegations Epstein sexually abused underage girls. As part of the agreement, Epstein agreed to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges in Florida and serve an 18-month prison sentence.

Maxwell had already lost an earlier attempt to overturn her conviction and prison sentence. Last fall, the Supreme Court turned away Maxwell's appeal, which centered on the nonprosecution agreement, leaving her conviction and sentence intact.

A federal grand jury indicted Maxwell on six counts in 2020 for facilitating and participating in Epstein's abuse of minor girls for at least a decade. She was found guilty of five of those counts in December 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Maxwell is currently serving her sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.

Last summer, Maxwell was interviewed by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over the course of two days following pushback over the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files. While Maxwell recounted her relationship with Epstein, as well as other powerful men in his social circles, no significant evidence came to light, and the Justice Department has not criminally charged anyone new in its review of the files and interviews. 

As part of a separate investigation being conducted by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions during a virtual appearance before the committee earlier this year.