Federal judge dismisses Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking appeal

A US federal judge has rejected Maxwell's bid to overturn her 2021 sex trafficking conviction, calling her claims "speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods".

Federal judge throws out Maxwell's bid to overturn sex trafficking conviction

A US federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's claim that her sex trafficking conviction amounted to a "complete miscarriage of justice", TheJournal.ie reports.

Judge Paul A Engelmayer dismissed the habeas petition filed by Maxwell, the former girlfriend of financier Jeffrey Epstein, ruling that her assertions were based on "speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods".

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

The judge described the petition as "demonstrably meritless", finding that Maxwell's claim of "substantial new evidence" fell well short of the standard required to set aside her conviction and 20-year prison sentence.

Maxwell had filed the habeas petition last December, arguing that evidence which would have led to her exoneration at her 2021 trial had been withheld and that false testimony had been presented to the jury. She contended that the cumulative effect of those alleged constitutional violations produced a "complete miscarriage of justice". Lawyers for Maxwell had not responded to a request for comment as of Tuesday.

Habeas petitions are typically filed as a last resort once all direct appeals have been exhausted — the route Maxwell pursued following her conviction and sentencing.

Maxwell, a British socialite, was arrested in July 2020, approximately a year after Epstein was taken into custody. Epstein, a millionaire financier, had been arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges and was ordered held without bail. He was found dead in his cell at a New York federal jail in August 2019; his death was ruled a suicide.

Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021. In July 2025 she was interviewed by the Justice Department's second-in-command, and was subsequently transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.

Source: TheJournal.ie