Ghislaine Maxwell asks court to toss out her conviction as DOJ expected to release Epstein files this week
Ghislaine Maxwell asked a federal judge on Wednesday to vacate her 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges, just two days before the federal government is expected to release a massive trove of documents on her associate, Jeffrey Epstein.
In the 50-page Manhattan court filing, Maxwell points to several alleged issues with her case, including a juror in her trial who later revealed that he was a sexual abuse victim, a piece of exculpatory evidence that she says was not made available to her and the long gap between the conduct she was charged with and her eventual indictment.
The filing also resurfaces a controversial 2007 deal between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Florida, in which the prosecutors agreed not to charge Epstein or any co-conspirators. Maxwell and her attorneys have long argued that the non-prosecution agreement should apply to her, which the government has rejected.
Maxwell's petition of habeas corpus — which she filed and signed herself — marks her latest attempt to reverse her guilty verdict and 20-year prison sentence, as most of her other legal avenues close. An appeals court upheld her conviction last year, and the Supreme Court declined to take up her case in October.
The 63-year-old contends that new evidence has emerged in support of her arguments.
"The newly discovered evidence referenced above is such that when taken as a whole it constitutes a miscarriage of justice in that, the Petitioner did not receive a fair trial by independent jurors coming to Court with an open mind," she wrote.
Her request comes ahead of a Friday deadline for the Justice Department to release virtually all of its files on its investigations into Epstein, in accordance with a law passed by Congress and signed by President Trump last month. Maxwell's attorney told CBS News on Wednesday that he will not make any requests to block release of the Epstein files.
Courts have previously pushed back on several of Maxwell's arguments for relief. A panel of appeals court judges found last year that Epstein's non-prosecution agreement didn't prevent prosecutors in Manhattan from charging Maxwell. A judge in 2022 also rejected her request for a new trial on the grounds that a juror didn't disclose his prior sexual abuse, which the appellate court upheld.
Maxwell is currently serving her sentence at a minimum-security federal correctional facility in Texas. She was moved there from a low-security facility in Florida over the summer, drawing controversy. A reason was not given for her transfer.
Prosecutors say Maxwell conspired with Epstein to recruit and abuse underage victims. Epstein himself was charged with sex trafficking in 2019, the year before Maxwell's indictment, but Epstein died by suicide in federal custody while awaiting trial.