Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker and former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, has petitioned the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction, arguing that she was unjustly prosecuted. Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking and related crimes.
Her legal team submitted the request on Monday, contending that a 2007 plea deal negotiated by Epstein with federal prosecutors in Florida should have protected her from prosecution. The agreement stipulated that if Epstein complied with its terms, the government would not charge any potential co-conspirators, including four named individuals. Maxwell was not one of those named, but her lawyers argue that she did not need to be named to receive protection under the deal.
The Justice Department has previously maintained that the Florida plea agreement did not apply to other federal districts, including the Southern District of New York, where Maxwell was ultimately tried and convicted. The filing comes days after Maxwell met with Justice Department officials to discuss the possibility of her becoming a government cooperator, though it remains unclear what information she might provide or what she could receive in return.
The plea deal has been a source of controversy since the 2007 agreement, and Alexander Acosta, the US attorney who negotiated it, faced heavy criticism after Epstein's 2019 arrest and later resigned as labour secretary. The Justice Department has also recently faced scrutiny over its handling of Epstein-related investigations, including a memo stating that no incriminating client list had been found.
Separately, President Donald Trump has been drawn into the saga, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that his name appeared multiple times in Epstein-related documents. Trump has filed a $10bn defamation lawsuit against the Journal's owner, Rupert Murdoch, over a story about a personal note, and has sought to depose Murdoch in that case.
