A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's attempt to overturn her sex trafficking conviction and secure her release from a 20-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer stated in a written ruling Tuesday that Maxwell's assertion of discovering "substantial new evidence" that would have exonerated her was "demonstrably meritless."
Maxwell had filed a habeas petition in December, claiming that information proving her innocence was withheld and that false testimony was presented to the jury during her 2021 trial. She argued that the cumulative effect of these alleged constitutional violations resulted in a "complete miscarriage of justice."
However, Judge Engelmayer found her claims to be based on "speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods." He concluded that Maxwell's petition "falls very far from the mark" and that no disputed fact presented has the potential to alter the trial's outcome.
Habeas petitions are typically a last resort for individuals seeking to challenge unlawful confinement after exhausting their appeals. Maxwell's conviction and sentencing followed the 2019 arrests of Jeffrey Epstein, her former associate and a millionaire financier, on sex trafficking charges. Epstein was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019, with the death ruled a suicide.
Máxwell, a British socialite, was arrested a year after Epstein and convicted in December 2021. She was later moved from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Lawyers for Maxwell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.