Ghislaine Maxwell has suffered another setback in her effort to undo the conviction that sent her to prison for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan has rejected Maxwell’s latest attempt to have her conviction and 20-year sentence thrown out, finding that her arguments offered no valid basis for disturbing the verdict.
In a 67-page ruling made public Tuesday, Engelmayer said Maxwell had largely revived arguments that had already failed during earlier challenges to her conviction. Other claims, he said, relied on material that did not meaningfully alter the case against her.
Rather than clearing Maxwell, the judge found that portions of the newly released material either supported the conclusions reached in the original proceedings or further implicated her.
Maxwell had pursued the case through a habeas corpus petition, arguing that her conviction and punishment were unlawful. She also maintained that prosecutors had failed to properly investigate the allegations and had withheld potentially useful evidence.
The judge dismissed those allegations as unsupported, describing her assertions concerning withheld evidence as lacking substance.
Maxwell, who represented herself in the latest proceedings, also argued that attorneys for Epstein’s accusers had effectively acted on behalf of the government. She pointed to documents released under legislation requiring disclosure of records connected to the Epstein investigation.
Among the issues she raised was the government’s handling of evidence involving Leslie Wexner, the billionaire former Victoria’s Secret executive who once employed Epstein to oversee his finances. Wexner has previously said he cut ties with Epstein in 2007 and was unaware of his criminal conduct.
Maxwell further challenged aspects of witness testimony and raised questions surrounding grand jury material connected to a Florida police investigation, including testimony concerning a massage table at Epstein’s Palm Beach property.
The judge found none of those arguments sufficient to reopen the case.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 on five counts arising from allegations that she helped recruit and groom underage girls for Epstein between 1994 and 2004. She received a 20-year federal prison sentence.
Her earlier appeal centered on Epstein’s 2008 non-prosecution agreement. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected that challenge last year, leaving the conviction intact.
Epstein died in a Manhattan jail in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on federal sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide.
Maxwell is currently serving her sentence at a federal prison camp in Texas. Under the existing sentence, she is eligible for release in July 2037, at which point she would be 75.
The latest ruling leaves Maxwell with another significant hurdle in her continuing campaign to overturn the conviction.
