Federal Judge Rejects Ghislaine Maxwell's Bid to Overturn Sex Trafficking Conviction
A federal judge dismissed Maxwell's self-filed motion to toss her 2021 guilty verdict, calling her claims "meritless" and "frivolous."
Federal Judge Upholds Maxwell's Sex Trafficking Conviction, Calls Claims 'Frivolous'
A federal judge on Tuesday threw out Ghislaine Maxwell's request to overturn her sex trafficking conviction, ruling that jurors in her 2021 trial had "overwhelming" evidence to find her guilty, Courthouse News Service reports.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, an Obama appointee in the Southern District of New York, issued a 67-page order dismissing what he described as Maxwell's "lengthy and rambling petition" to vacate the jury's verdict. The jury found Maxwell guilty of recruiting and coordinating underage girls for sexual abuse by financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"Maxwell's claims are all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous," Engelmayer wrote.
Maxwell, 64, filed the December motion while representing herself from federal prison. The petition arrived in seven detached segments and was supplemented twice with additional filings. She argued that new evidence had surfaced since her trial warranting a fresh look at the verdict.
Among her arguments: that after Epstein's death in federal custody in 2019, the Department of Justice rushed to prosecute her as a scapegoat, targeting her "for expediency and purely political motives" rather than pursuing other alleged Epstein associates. Engelmayer dismissed that claim outright.
"As the trial showed, the case against Maxwell was based on abundant admissible evidence establishing her knowing participation in enabling a notorious child sex abuser to carry out historically heinous crimes," the judge wrote. "Far from being discriminatory or unjust, this was the epitome of a virtuous prosecution."
Maxwell also renewed her claim of juror misconduct, arguing that one juror — identified in press reports as Scotty David — had deliberately concealed during jury selection that he was a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. On the jury questionnaire, David checked "no" on a question asking whether he or someone close to him had ever been a victim of sexual harassment, abuse, or assault. After the trial, he told reporters he was indeed a survivor.
Maxwell contended that David's presence on the jury violated her Sixth Amendment rights by introducing bias against her. But Engelmayer noted that Maxwell had already raised the juror misconduct argument in post-trial motions and in an appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals — losing both times — and had offered no valid reason to relitigate the issue. Several of the press clippings Maxwell cited as "new" evidence actually predated her initial litigation on the subject, the judge found.
"And Maxwell does not argue or adduce evidence suggesting a cause for, or prejudice from, her failure to cite such materials in her direct appeal," Engelmayer wrote.
Whether Maxwell will appeal Engelmayer's ruling to the Second Circuit remains unclear. The judge also denied her the right to appeal without paying court costs — certifying that "any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith" — meaning she cannot do so free of charge.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted on five counts: sex trafficking of a minor, sex trafficking conspiracy, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors, and conspiracy to entice minors.
Her case has drawn renewed public attention amid the early months of President Donald Trump's second administration, which brought his past association with Epstein back into public discussion. The DOJ subsequently released a tranche of documents related to its Epstein investigation, though the department faced criticism for heavily redacting portions of those releases while exposing the names of victims in others.
Maxwell was initially held at a federal facility in Florida but was transferred to a low-security prison in Texas following a closed-door interview with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last summer.
Source: Courthouse News Service