Disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell filed an appeal that she hopes may vacate her 20-year sentence for assisting pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse teenage girls.
Maxwell’s lawyers argued in the filing that “fatal” errors in the case against her are sufficient to overturn the conviction and that the prosecution used her as a “proxy” for Epstein following his death in 2019.
“It did so to satisfy public outrage over an unpopular non-prosecution agreement and the death of the person responsible for the crimes,” attorney Arthur Aidala wrote, according to Law & Crime.
“In its zeal to pin the blame for its own incompetence and for Epstein’s crimes on Maxwell, the Government breached its promise not to prosecute Maxwell, charged her with time-barred offenses, resurrected and recast decades-old allegations for conduct previously ascribed to Epstein and other named assistants, and joined forces with complainants’ civil attorneys, whose interests were financial, to develop new allegations that would support charges against Maxwell,” her lawyers argue in the filing.
The lawyers also claim that the jury was tarnished by the presence of a juror, who identified himself as Scotty David, who had been molested as a child but had failed to disclose that information on a pre-trial questionnaire.
The lawyers also argue that the inhumane conditions of her confinement during trial, including “claims of raw sewage, sleep and water deprivation, and hyper-surveillance,” according to Reuters, were so egregious that Maxwell was left too “disoriented and diminished” to contribute to her own defense.
Finally, lawyers argued that the trial never should have even happened, as Maxwell was covered at the time by a non-prosecution agreement.
“The Government breached a non-prosecution agreement that immunized Ms. Maxwell for these offenses. That agreement was entered into by the Government and Epstein in 2007, and, by its terms, unambiguously barred this prosecution,” they wrote.
In June, Judge Alison J. Nathan sentenced Maxwell to 20 years, which would ensure that the now-61-year-old would likely spend most of her remaining life behind bars.
Maxwell had been convicted on five counts of federal sex trafficking the previous December. Epstein died in New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center while awaiting his own trial.
“Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what she was doing,” federal prosecutor Alison Moe said in pre-sentencing arguments, according to a report from the New York Times. “She manipulated her victims and groomed them for sexual abuse.”
Some of Maxwell’s victims gave statements to the court before the sentencing with a lawyer for Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre reading a statement on her behalf.
“I would never have met Jeffrey Epstein but for you,” the statement said. “You deserve to spend the rest of your life in a jail cell.”
“You deserve to be trapped in a cage,” she added.
Scroll down to leave a comment and share your thoughts.
