Epstein case: Ghislaine Maxwell seeks to overturn 20-year sentence, claiming new evidence

ANKARA (AA) – On the eve of the expected release of the files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, his longtime associate has asked a federal judge to throw out her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence.

Ghislaine Maxwell argued that substantial new evidence shows her trial was unfair due to constitutional violations.

In a 52-page filing, submitted without a lawyer on Wednesday to Manhattan federal court, the 63-year-old Maxwell detailed what she called major flaws in her case.

Maxwell claimed that, since her trial ended in 2022, significant new evidence has come to light from related civil lawsuits, government disclosures, investigative reports, and other documents – evidence, she said, of constitutional violations which compromised the fairness of her trial.

She further asserted in the filing that, considering the complete body of evidence now available, no reasonable jury would have found her guilty.

She claimed issues including evidence withheld from her defense, juror misconduct, and inconsistencies in witness statements.

To back this up, she included over 140 exhibits — ranging from news articles and podcasts to excerpts from books and documentaries.

The petition arrives just before Friday’s expected public release of grand jury records and other materials from the Epstein and Maxwell investigations, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act signed into law last month.

Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five counts, including sex trafficking of a minor, for helping recruit and groom underage girls for Epstein's abuse from 1994 to 2004.

She was sentenced to 20 years in June 2022. Higher courts rejected her appeals, with the US Supreme Court declining to hear the case in October.

Maxwell attracted controversy this July when Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney general and President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, interviewed her, in a highly unusual move. She was later moved to a minimum-security prison – which is normally against the rules for sex offenders – and reportedly given special treatment.

When asked if he would pardon her, Trump said he had not thought about doing so, but declined to rule it out.

The latest filing was prepared and signed by Maxwell herself. Her former attorney, David Oscar Markus, had previously notified the court of her plan to proceed without counsel.

Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting his own sex-trafficking trial. His connections to powerful figures continue to fuel public interest, especially with the upcoming document releases adding scrutiny to Maxwell's latest bid for freedom.