Maxwell's Bid for Freedom Rejected: Judge Calls '25 Co-Conspirators' Claim Frivolous

A federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's habeas petition in a 67-page ruling, dismissing her claims about 25 unindicted Epstein co-conspirators as baseless.

Federal Judge Shreds Maxwell's Prison Release Bid Over Epstein Co-Conspirator Claims

A federal judge used the word "frivolous" five times in a sweeping 67-page ruling rejecting Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to leave prison early, according to Law & Crime. U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer found no grounds to "disturb the outcome of her trial" and confirmed the convicted sex trafficker remains on track for release in 2037.

Engelmayer, a Barack Obama appointee, described Maxwell's habeas corpus petition as "lengthy and rambling," its claims "meritless" — "all or almost all" of which he said were frivolous. The 64-year-old has been serving time as a convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, whom the judge referred to as a "notorious pedophile."

The judge barred the "vast majority" of Maxwell's arguments on procedural grounds, noting she had either already lost those same points on direct appeal or had chosen not to raise them at that stage. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Maxwell's appeal of her convictions in October.

Co-conspirator claims rest on a podcast transcript

Central to Maxwell's petition was an attempt to leverage disclosures made under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. She argued that "new evidence" proved "25 men" had reached secret settlements with victims' lawyers — men she described as potential co-conspirators who, had she known of their existence, she "would have called… as witnesses at trial."

Engelmayer was unconvinced. The sole basis Maxwell offered for this claim was a transcript from a May 14, 2024 podcast featuring a lawyer representing Epstein and Maxwell victims. On that podcast, the lawyer vaguely alleged that Epstein had sent victims to be abused by "certain friends," whom Epstein then "blackmail[ed]," before speculating: "So let's just say that over the years there's 25 of those individuals."

"This uncorroborated, conjectural remark is a far cry from evidence that 25 unindicted co-conspirators exist, as Maxwell (without naming any of them) posits," Engelmayer wrote. He characterized the DOJ disclosures Maxwell tried to rely on as "largely irrelevant" to her case.

No path to exculpation shown

Beyond the weakness of the underlying claim, Maxwell also failed to demonstrate how any of these unnamed individuals "would have exculpated" her at trial. She similarly produced no evidence that federal prosecutors "deliberately delayed" her indictment in order to "inhibit" her from calling such witnesses in her defense.

Maxwell had previously attempted — and failed — to argue that the non-prosecution agreement Epstein secured in Florida in 2007, which shielded him and potential co-conspirators from federal charges, extended to cover her prosecution in New York.

Engelmayer concluded that Maxwell had fallen "very far from the mark," leaving no disputed fact that could alter her conviction. Without clemency, she is not scheduled for release until 2037.

Source: Law & Crime