Supreme Court rejects appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, won’t review Epstein-related conviction
The Supreme Court announced Monday that it will not hear an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted ex-girlfriend of late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell had argued that she should not have been charged with sex-trafficking minors, based on a plea deal Epstein had secured years before her 2021 conviction in the Southern District of New York. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence for enticing minors to engage in sex acts and sex trafficking.
Maxwell claimed that Epstein’s 2007 plea deal in the Southern District of Florida protected four co-conspirators from prosecution — an unusual deal for the government to undertake. Though the co-conspirators’ names are not listed in the court filing, she tried to cite the plea deal language in hopes of having her conviction dismissed.
Epstein, a financier who had entertained wealthy and powerful individuals, pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring a child for prostitution and soliciting a prostitute. He was charged with sex-trafficking minors in 2019 in the Southern District of New York, where he reportedly committed suicide while awaiting trial.
The Trump administration had asked the high court not to take up Maxwell’s challenge and to stay out of the case.
President Trump has denied connections to Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation.
But the Epstein case had consumed the Trump administration following an announcement from the FBI and the Department of Justice in July that said Epstein had killed himself despite conspiracy theories to the contrary, that a “client list” that Attorney General Pam Bondi had intimated was on her desk did not actually exist, and that no additional documents from the high-profile investigation were suitable to be released, The Associated Press reported.
The announcement produced outrage from conspiracy theorists and Trump supporters who had been hoping to see proof of a government cover-up, the AP reported. That expectation was driven in part by comments from officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino, who on podcasts before taking their current positions had repeatedly promoted the idea that damaging details about prominent people were being withheld.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell amid the criticism and suspicion. Afterward, she said publicly that she never saw Mr. Trump engaged in the sex abuse of minors with Epstein.
Shortly after the interview, Maxwell was moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas.
A reason for the transfer was not given, the AP reported. Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, said she is “innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted.”
It would have taken four justices to vote in favor of hearing Maxwell’s appeal for oral arguments to have been granted.
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
