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A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's latest attempt to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
In a 67-page ruling, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York dismissed Maxwell's petition, finding that she had failed to demonstrate that her constitutional rights had been violated.
The judge was particularly scathing about the arguments presented by Maxwell, describing her claims as “meritless” and “frivolous.”
Engelmayer said most of the arguments could not be considered because they had already been raised and rejected during Maxwell's earlier appeal, or because she had failed to raise them when she previously had the opportunity.
“The vast majority are procedurally barred — either because Maxwell made and lost the same arguments on direct appeal, or because she could have made such arguments on appeal but elected not to do so,” he wrote.
Maxwell had pointed to newly released material connected to the government's investigation into Epstein in an effort to support her case.
But rather than helping her, Engelmayer said the additional material actually strengthened the case against her.
The judge said the new evidence “incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges.”
He also criticised the nature of Maxwell's court filing, describing it as “lengthy and rambling.”
The ruling went further, delivering a particularly damning assessment of her overall case.
“Maxwell's petition falls very far from the mark,” Engelmayer wrote.
He continued: “Nearly all its claims are procedurally barred; the overwhelming testimonial and documentary evidence adduced at trial conclusively established her guilt; and her petition's claims are demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods.”
The judge concluded that there was nothing raised by Maxwell that could potentially alter the outcome of her trial.
“There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial,” he wrote.
Maxwell filed the latest petition in December, asking Engelmayer to vacate her conviction.
Among her arguments was a claim that prosecutors had withheld potentially exculpatory evidence before her trial. She also challenged the lengthy period between the alleged offences and her eventual indictment.
She again raised a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein, arguing that the agreement should have prevented her own prosecution.
The deal followed an investigation into allegations that Epstein had sexually abused underage girls. Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty to two Florida state prostitution charges and received an 18-month prison sentence.
However, Maxwell had already sustained a major setback in that argument.
The US Supreme Court previously declined to hear her appeal, leaving both her conviction and sentence intact.
A federal grand jury indicted Maxwell in 2020 on six charges relating to her role in facilitating and participating in Epstein's abuse of underage girls over a period of years.
She was convicted on five of those charges in December 2021 and subsequently sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Maxwell is currently serving her sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas.
Her latest legal challenge came after the release of millions of pages of documents relating to the Epstein investigation.
Maxwell was also interviewed by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche over two days last summer as the Trump administration faced mounting questions over its handling of the Epstein files.
During those interviews, she discussed her relationship with Epstein and his connections to prominent figures. However, the interviews did not produce significant new evidence, and the Justice Department has not charged anyone else criminally as a result of its review.
In a separate House Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigation, Maxwell invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during a virtual appearance earlier this year and declined to answer questions.
