Later this week, disgraced socialite Ghislaine Maxwell will launch her appeal to overturn her 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking, making a bid to claim that one of the jurors who convicted her broke the law by calling his psychiatrist during the trial.
The 20,000-word appeal must be filed before the U.S. Court of Appeals 2nd Circuit in New York before the deadline on Tuesday.
The appeal, filed by Maxwell’s “pit-bull” lawyer, Arthur Aidala, who also represented disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, will focus on whether or not Juror 50 violated the judge’s orders not to discuss the case.
“The juror admitted he called his psychiatrist during deliberations because he was so upset. This is in clear violation of the judge’s order not to discuss the case with anyone,” said a source. “It doesn’t matter that he was calling a medical professional. He clearly broke the rules and violated the jurors’ oath which gives strong grounds for appeal.”
Juror 50, who identified himself as Scotty David, also failed to disclose that he had been a victim of sexual abuse, something that he later said helped him “influence” other jurors during deliberations.
Maxwell’s lawyers say that they have identified at least two other jurors who failed to disclose that they had been victims of sexual assault.
The source added that Maxwell’s lawyers “will argue that Ms Maxwell was not tried by 12 fair and impartial jurors.”
In December 2021, Maxwell was convicted on five counts related to her role as pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged “madam.” Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while being held on child sex charges.
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