Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team will argue that her accusers have “blurred distorted and motivated memories” as she appeals a 20-year prison sentence handed down to her in 2022 for helping Jeffrey Epstein’s pedophile ring.
Maxwell, 62, was described as “dangerous” during her trial as jurors were told details of how she helped lure vulnerable teenagers to Epstein’s various properties so he could sexually abuse them.
One of the details that Maxwell’s attorneys will argue involved juror Scotty David, who allegedly failed to disclose that he had been sexually assaulted in his pre-trial questionnaire.
Judge Alison Nathan said at sentencing that Maxwell was “central” to Epstein’s heinous crimes, and not a “proxy.”
“Ms. Maxwell worked with Epstein to select young victims who were vulnerable and played a critical role in facilitating sexual abuse,” the judge said.
Earlier this month, MailOnline reported that Maxwell was ‘focused and motivated’ for her call-up. The disgraced socialite is serving her time in a minimum security prison in Tallahassee.
Maxwell’s close relationship with Epstein was well documented in public over the years, yet she still denies knowledge of the late financier’s crimes.
‘Judge Alison Nathan said at sentencing that Maxwell was ‘central’ to Epstein’s heinous crimes, and not a ‘proxy’.
‘It is unusual for someone to have such insight into a complex case like this. It’s unique. But she is focused and motivated and that motivates us. It definitely puts some fire in our bellies,” her brother Ian said.
U.S. government attorneys said Maxwell’s arguments “fall far short of establishing that Judge Nathan abused her discretion” in her decision not to overturn the jury’s verdict.
They will also argue that her sentence was not unfair and that her arguments to the contrary are “so cursory and undeveloped” that they should be rejected.
She was convicted of five felonies, including sex trafficking of minors, conspiracy to entice a minor to travel to engage in illegal sexual acts, and conspiracy to transport a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Maxwell has been jailed since July 2020, despite numerous attempts by her defense counsel to have her released on bail.
In January, DailyMail.com revealed that Maxwell had told her fellow inmates in prison to ignore the reports and promised to write a memoir telling ‘the truth’, although this is expected to be an attempt to whitewash her involvement.
A source alleged that Maxwell, who was a close associate of Epstein for many years, claimed that “the documents in the news are all false or disinformation” and that “the truth won’t come out until her book does.”
The insider said: “She brags about how great it will be, but it sounds like the same old lies she’s told a thousand times.
“She really thinks she did nothing wrong and that her charges will be dropped if people read it.”
Last year, she denied learning of the late financier’s crimes in a self-serving prison interview, insisting she regretted ever meeting him and had no idea he was ‘capable of evil’ .
But hundreds of documents made public in January relating to a long-settled defamation case brought against Maxwell by Prince Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre make a mockery of her claims of innocence.
Dozens of famous people, including Bill Clinton, Michael Jackson, Donald Trump and Stephen Hawking, were outed as friends or associates of the deceased predator, who hanged himself behind bars in 2019 rather than face justice.
But multiple testimonies from victims and former Epstein associates again emphasized that Maxwell was “the boss” of his underage sex ring, drawing the same conclusion as jurors in her New York trial.
Maxwell’s dismal financial state and incarceration are a high-profile fall from grace for the favorite daughter of the late media baron Robert Maxwell. In the photo: general view of FCI Tallahassee
Initial reports showed the disgraced British socialite struggling with her new life behind bars, refusing to eat and complaining bitterly to prison authorities that her clothes did not fit.
Epstein was found dead in his cell in a federal prison in Manhattan in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
The death was ruled a suicide.
It was reported last month that grand jury transcripts from a 2006 Florida investigation into underage girls will be publicly released later this year under legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday.
A local judge cited the new law to temporarily refuse the release of the documents.
The measure, which takes effect July 1, would provide a limited exception to the secrecy that typically shrouds grand jury testimony in specific cases like the one involving Epstein, DeSantis said at a signing ceremony in Palm Beach, Florida, where many of the crimes took place in Epstein’s home.
“There needs to be a mechanism in some of these rare circumstances for people to get to the truth,” the Republican governor said. ‘It is in the interests of justice to make this public. We don’t think we can just turn a blind eye.’
Trump’s Secretary of Labor, Alexander Acosta, infamously signed a soft deal for Epstein.
In 2008, it allowed him to escape stiffer federal charges and instead plead guilty to state charges of soliciting a person under 18 for prostitution and solicitation of prostitution.
He was sentenced to 18 months in Palm Beach County Jail, followed by 12 months of home confinement. He had to register as a sex offender.
“What happened was clearly wrong and the punishment was completely inadequate for the crime,” DeSantis said.
Epstein was charged in 2018 with federal sex trafficking — where he also owned a mansion that was a scene of abuse — after the Miami Herald published a series of articles that renewed public attention to the case, including interviews with some victims who had pursued civil cases . lawsuits against him.
Maxwell, who procured minors for sex offender and former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, has reportedly debunked reports about the recently released trove of court documents naming his associates to her friends in prison, insiders say