A Manhattan-based appeals court on Tuesday upheld British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking conviction for helping the late Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse four teenage girls between 1994 and 2004.
The ruling marks the latest development in the disgraced British socialite’s legal challenges, which resulted in her incarceration. Maxwell, 62, has been serving a 20-year prison sentence since June 2022 after she was convicted on five out of six counts related to her involvement with Epstein.
In December 2021, Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking of a minor, transportation of a minor to engage in illegal sex, and three counts of conspiracy in connection with the other charges. She was found not guilty of luring a minor to travel to participate in illegal sex acts.
Maxwell’s argument for an appeal hinged on a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in southern Florida, according to news reports from the Telegraph and BBC. Maxwell claimed she should be set free under the terms of the “weird” deal, which prevented prosecutors from pursuing Epstein’s alleged co-conspirators until more recently.
Her lawyer contended that the federal government was barred from nationwide prosecutions of Epstein’s “potential four co-conspirators,” including four named in the agreement, according to the news outlets. Maxwell, however, was not among the identified co-conspirators.
The three-judge panel on the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the agreement intended to only bind prosecutors in southern Florida. Given that she was prosecuted in New York, the court dismissed the argument altogether and declared her sentence to be “procedurally reasonable.”
Moreover, Maxwell’s legal team argued that prosecutors scapegoated Maxwell because Epstein was dead and demanded that she be held accountable for involving herself in the disgraced financier’s illicit activities. The defense also claimed Maxwell’s criminal trial was tainted because one of the jurors who convicted her did not disclose that he had been sexually abused as a child.
Epstein died in prison in 2019, five weeks after his arrest and sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell’s attorney vowed to take the appeal to the Supreme Court.
“We are obviously very disappointed by the court’s decision and we vehemently disagree with the outcome,” Arthur Aidala said, according to the BBC. “We are cautiously optimistic that Ghislaine will get the justice she deserves from the Supreme Court of the United States.”
In the meantime, Maxwell is currently serving her sentence in a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Fla. She is due for release in July 2037.