Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are seen in this image released by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2025. Maxwell has been challenging her conviction and sentence in Manhattan federal court.U.S. Justice Department/Reuters
Ghislaine Maxwell argued in a new court filing that Jeffrey Epstein documents released this year contained evidence her rights were violated before she was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping the late financier sexually abuse teenage girls.
Maxwell, 64, has been challenging her December 2021 conviction and sentence in Manhattan federal court, and is seeking a writ of habeas corpus declaring her punishment unlawful. Prosecutors said her latest claims were baseless or filed too late.
In her amended petition made public on Wednesday, Maxwell said many documents disclosed through the Epstein Files Transparency Act show that her due process rights were violated because lawyers representing Epstein’s accusers served as “De Facto Prosecutors and agents of the government.”
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The former British socialite and Epstein girlfriend cited among other things a letter from a former federal prosecutor who said, “I did what I could” to help the women’s lawyers, in an alleged attempt to set aside Epstein’s controversial 2007 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida.
Maxwell has repeatedly argued unsuccessfully that Epstein’s agreement shielded her from criminal prosecution.
Her habeas petition represents her broadest effort to overturn her conviction, the most significant successful prosecution to emerge from the Epstein scandal.
She drew on some of the millions of pages of documents released under the Epstein files law, which U.S. President Donald Trump signed in November following near-unanimous congressional approval.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer oversees Maxwell’s case, and will review her petition.
A document that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files shows a photo of Maxwell in 2019.Jon Elswick/The Associated Press
U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton in Manhattan, whose office prosecuted Maxwell, said she filed most of her claims too late, while those filed on time were speculative at best, misstated the record or the law, or failed to show her trial was unfair.
“In short, the defendant – for multiple, independent reasons – utterly fails to carry her burden to overturn her proper conviction and just sentence,” Clayton said in a court filing also made public on Wednesday.
A spokesperson for some lawyers representing Epstein accusers had no immediate comment.
Maxwell is representing herself in seeking to overturn her conviction on five charges for recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
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