A federal judge has denied Ghislaine Maxwell's request to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence, stating that her claims of new evidence are unfounded.
Judge Paul Engelmayer ruled that the evidence Maxwell presented, much of which was drawn from files recently released by the Justice Department, was "largely irrelevant" to the charges she faced. In his written statement, Engelmayer noted that to the extent the evidence was relevant, it did not exonerate her but rather "incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges."
Maxwell, who represented herself in the petition, had argued that the newly released documents related to Jeffrey Epstein supported her claims of juror misconduct, a prior non-prosecution deal from 2007, prosecutorial misconduct, and other alleged errors that she contended undermined her conviction.
Engelmayer described Maxwell's filing as "lengthy and rambling," and characterized her claims as "all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous."
One of Maxwell's arguments centered on the assertion that a juror, who had previously survived sexual abuse, concealed this history during jury selection and was therefore biased against her. However, Engelmayer pointed out that the Second Circuit had previously addressed and rejected this claim, concluding that the juror had served "fairly and impartially." The judge stated that the purported new evidence provided by Maxwell did not alter this conclusion.
Maxwell was sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years in prison for her role as a facilitator for financier Jeffrey Epstein, providing underage girls to him. She is currently incarcerated at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas.