A US appeals court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell for helping the late disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
The decision by the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means the British socialite will remain in the Florida prison, where she is serving a 20-year sentence.
Maxwell’s lawyer indicated she would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Maxwell, 62, was convicted in December 2021 of five charges of recruiting and grooming four underage girls for her former boyfriend Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
The three-judge panel rejected Maxwell’s claim that Epstein’s 2007 agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida that he would not be prosecuted there protects him from prosecution in New York, where he was criminally charged in 2020.
It also rejected Maxwell’s claims that her trial was flawed because a juror did not disclose that she had been sexually abused as a child, and that the sentence was too long.
Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes found Maxwell’s sentence to be procedurally fair.
He cited the trial judge’s assessment that the sentence reflected Maxwell’s “key role in facilitating the abuse of minor girls through a series of deceptive tactics” and the “significant and lasting damage this caused.”
The scandal has tarnished or destroyed the reputations of his former friends, including Britain’s Prince Andrew and former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, who worked with Epstein while employed at JPMorgan Chase.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 at age 66, five weeks after being arrested and charged with sex trafficking.
“We are obviously very disappointed by the court’s decision and we strongly disagree with the outcome,” Maxwell’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said in a statement. “We are extremely optimistic that Ghislaine will receive the justice she deserves from the United States Supreme Court.”
Claims of scapegoating
In her appeal, Maxwell argued that the mention of “the United States” in Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement indicated the government’s intent to bar nationwide prosecution of “potential co-conspirators,” including four others named in the agreement.
A prosecutor said the mention of the United States was a trivial reference, and that Epstein’s agreement was only meant to bind southern Florida prosecutors.
Cabranes agreed, saying there was nothing in the text of the agreement or the history of the negotiations to suggest it was binding on New York prosecutors.
Epstein eventually pleaded guilty to charges brought by Florida state prosecutors in 2008 and served 13 months in prison, a treatment now widely viewed as too lenient.
Maxwell also argued in her appeal that prosecutors used her as a scapegoat because Epstein was dead and the public demanded someone else be held responsible.
Tuesday’s decision did not consider that argument.
Since Epstein’s death, his victims have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars from his estate, as well as from JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, which they accused of handling transactions that financed his misconduct.
Sigrid McCauley, a lawyer for dozens of Epstein’s accusers, called Tuesday’s ruling “another step toward justice.”
Maxwell is serving her sentence at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. She is eligible for release in July 2037.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
