Ghislaine Maxwell will take her case to the Supreme Court if she loses her appeal against her 2021 sex trafficking conviction that resulted in a 20-year prison sentence, her lawyers said today.
Lawyer Arthur Aidala said Maxwell would fight on because her case could damage “the heart of trust” between citizens and their government if she loses.
Aidala said the US government agreed not to prosecute Maxwell as part of a deal with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2008, and that it could not simply ‘tear it up’.
Maxwell’s legal team said it was “cautiously optimistic” after the hearing before a three-judge panel in New York, which reserved their decision.
Lawyers for the disgraced British socialite are trying to overturn her sex trafficking conviction for luring girls as young as 14 to Epstein.
She is serving a 20-year sentence in a prison in Tallahassee, Florida, with a release date of 2037 if her appeal fails.
An appeal hearing was held today in New York for British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who listened on the phone during the 20-minute hearing
Maxwell’s lawyers said she will take her case all the way to the Supreme Court if she loses her appeal
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.
Aidala appeared before the Second Circuit court of appeals in New York, in the same courthouse where Maxwell was tried.
Maxwell, 62, listened to the 20-minute hearing via a telephone line.
Afterward, Aidala said Epstein’s 2008 plea deal, under which he served only 15 months in prison for soliciting underage girls for prosecution, granted immunity to Maxwell under a provision regarding co-conspirators.
Maxwell’s lawyer Arthur Aidala said he was “cautiously optimistic” after the hearing before a three-judge panel, which reserved their decision
Aidala said the deal with Florida prosecutors referred to the “United States,” which he said referred to prosecutors across the country.
That made it unfair when Maxwell was brought to trial by prosecutors in New York in 2020, after Epstein hanged himself while awaiting his own trial.
“You cannot tear up an agreement between the government and its citizens,” Aidala said.
Aidala said Maxwell was “very optimistic” her appeal would win and he called her a “very intelligent” woman who helped with the case.
If they lose the appeal, they would go to the Supreme Court because “it’s not just about Ghislaine, it’s about the whole system,” Aidala said.
“It puts a stake in the heart of the trust that exists between (the government) and the citizens of this country.”
In court, Diana Fabi Samson, another attorney for Maxwell, said the U.S. government made a “promise” to Maxwell with Epstein’s plea deal.
She called Epstein’s plea deal “weird” and “very unusual” and said failure by prosecutors would plunge a “dagger into the heart of trust between the government and its citizens.”
Judge Raymond Lohier challenged Fabi Samson that a Justice Department manual stated that non-prosecution agreements should be the “opposite” of what she suggested, meaning Maxwell could have been prosecuted.
Fabi Samson responded that the agreement was “not a shield to enable the government to keep its promises.”
Maxwell, who procured minors for sex offender and former friend Jeffrey Epstein, is serving a 20-year sentence in a Tallahassee prison with a release date of 2037.
Despite the heinous nature of her crimes, Maxwell and Epstein’s social circle included Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other wealthy businessmen.
She also raised the idea that Epstein, who gave his associates millions of dollars in payments, may have selflessly wanted to prevent others from being sent to prison.
Epstein asked for immunity for his associates so that “no one else would take the blame for what he did,” Fabi Samson said.
After the hearing, she said she felt “cautiously optimistic” that Maxwell would win.
Maxwell’s conviction marked a stunning fall from grace for the daughter of the late and disgraced British media mogul Robert Maxwell.
Born into extreme privilege, Maxwell began dating Epstein in the early 1990s after her father’s mysterious death on his yacht in the Canary Islands turned her world upside down.
During her trial, prosecutors described how she acted as the boss of Epstein’s Florida mansion, where she would ensure a steady supply of teenage girls was available for “massages.”
Despite the heinous nature of her crimes, Maxwell and Epstein socialized in rarefied circles and were friends with Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other wealthy businessmen.
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.
Since arriving at FCI Tallahassee, Maxwell has reportedly started teaching etiquette classes and has regularly led Pilates and yoga sessions.
During Maxwell’s trial, she was held in the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
She complained bitterly about her treatment, saying she had lost weight, her hair was starting to fall out and guards were waking her every twenty minutes and shining a light in her cell.
Since arriving at FCI Tallahassee, Maxwell has reportedly started teaching etiquette classes and has regularly led Pilates and yoga sessions.
She is an avid runner and has been seen running around the prison’s outdoor track as she tries to keep fit.
Maxwell, known as inmate 02879-509, has also used the four languages she knows to help other inmates understand their legal documents.
Among those she has reportedly become close to is Narcy Novack, a “sadistic” woman serving a life sentence for orchestrating the murders of her millionaire husband and his mother.
Epstein was scheduled to stand trial before Maxwell, but committed suicide in custody in August 2019 before his case could be heard.