Ghislaine Maxwell is to ask Donald Trump to free her from prison after a federal judge dismissed her latest attempt to overturn her conviction as “frivolous” and “meritless”, destroying her hopes of a legal escape.
The 64-year-old British socialite will plead with the US President – an old friend – to commute her 20-year sentence after US federal judge Paul Engelmayer rejected her case. Sources close to Maxwell say the ferocity of the ruling has brought home the bleak reality facing Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and “madam”.
No legal options left
Maxwell has told lawyers “she has nothing left to lose”, as one insider described the judgment as “humiliating”. The insider told The Mirror: “The rejection has left her humiliated. She thought there was still a legal escape route, but that has now been shut down in the most brutal way. Ghislaine knows all hope has gone with the courts, and her only realistic chance is Donald. They go back years, they mixed in the same New York and Palm Beach circles, and she was right at the centre of Epstein’s world.”
“Donald knows she saw a lot, heard a lot and knows far more than most about that whole period. Nobody is saying she is threatening him, but he will understand exactly why any decision about her is so sensitive. There is a lot of history sitting in that relationship.”
Political dilemma for Trump
Maxwell’s lack of legal options leaves her increasingly dependent on the one man with the power to set her free. However, her plan places the President in a difficult political dilemma. Maxwell, the daughter of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, spent years at the centre of Epstein’s world and moved in the same New York and Palm Beach social circles as Trump.
The trio attended parties and social events together, with evidence – photographs, video, cards and emails – showing just how close they were. At one event at Trump's Mar-A-Lago club, she took the then-Prince Andrew. Washington sources have told The Mirror that the president knows Maxwell was closer than almost anyone to Epstein and possesses knowledge about his friendships, social life and the powerful people who circulated around him.
Any presidential intervention on behalf of a woman who knew both Trump and Epstein would inevitably leave the White House facing questions about what she knows.
Past statements on Maxwell
Since her arrest and conviction, Trump has done little to close that door. After Maxwell was arrested in July 2020 and accused of recruiting girls for Epstein, he said: “I just wish her well, frankly.” Trump added at the time: “I've met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach... But I wish her well, whatever it is.”
Despite being repeatedly asked whether he would pardon Maxwell or commute her sentence, Trump has consistently refused to rule it out. Last year, he said: “Well, I’m allowed to give her a pardon, but I . . . nobody’s approached me with it.” Asked separately about clemency, Trump said: “It's something I haven't thought about. It's really something . . . . I’m allowed to do it. But it's something I have not thought about.”
Prison transfer controversy
The controversy is particularly toxic because critics already believe Maxwell has benefited from extraordinary treatment under Trump’s administration. In July last year, Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer and then deputy attorney general, took the highly unusual step of personally interviewing Maxwell over two days in Florida.
She refused to implicate Trump in wrongdoing during those discussions. Within days, she was transferred from a federal prison in Tallahassee to Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas, a minimum-security facility with little or no perimeter fencing and dormitory accommodation. The move caused fury because US Bureau of Prisons policy bars sex offenders from such camps unless officials approve a special waiver.
Former senior prison official Judi Garrett described the treatment as extraordinary, saying: “Getting a public safety factor for a sex offender waived is monumental.” Democrat Jamie Raskin and fellow congressional critics have accused the Trump administration of keeping Maxwell comfortable, and have demanded answers over what they describe as preferential treatment.
They have not produced evidence that Trump ordered the transfer as a reward for Maxwell, and the administration denies improper treatment. But suspicions have been fuelled by Maxwell’s continued refusal to publicly turn on the President despite her knowledge of the Epstein social world.
New Attorney General connection
Congressional Democrats have openly alleged that she has received “VIP treatment”. Maxwell’s position inside Washington has potentially strengthened further. Blanche, the official who personally questioned her, was promoted this month and sworn in as Trump’s Attorney General.
Maxwell is represented by lawyer David Oscar Markus, who accompanied her during the Blanche interviews and has openly raised the prospect of presidential clemency. The two lawyers are friends, having appeared on podcasts together. Maxwell’s own preparations have already begun. In an email carrying the subject line “commutation application”, Maxwell wrote: “I am struggling to keep it all together as it is big and there are so many attachments.”
Her urgency intensified after Judge Engelmayer demolished her latest legal case. He ruled that the evidence Maxwell claimed would vindicate her instead “far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness” of her conviction. The Supreme Court has already refused to take up another challenge.
Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 as he was held in a Manhattan jail awaiting trial for sex trafficking. Before his death, he described himself as Trump’s “best friend,” with the president speaking glowingly of the billionaire. “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York magazine in 2002. “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
