(NewsSpace.com) – In June 2022, a judge sentenced Ghislaine Maxwell to 20 years in prison following her conviction in 2021 of trafficking girls and women for Jeffrey Epstein. Her legal team tried unsuccessfully to have her conviction set aside, citing a juror who failed to disclose that he suffered abuse as a child. The judge refused and upheld the verdict. Maxwell’s team is now trying to overturn her conviction again.
On Tuesday, March 12, Diana Fabi Samson, Maxwell’s attorney, argued before a three-judge panel to have her conviction tossed. Samson said that her client is protected under a 2007 deal Epstein made with prosecutors. Maxwell claims she was only prosecuted as a “proxy” since her former lover died before he could go to trial for his crimes and as a means of “satisfy[ing] public outrage.”
Prosecutors, however, say that Maxwell was not covered under that agreement, under which the US would “not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators … including but not limited to” listing four names, none of which included Maxwell. The defense said not adhering to the agreement would “strike a dagger in the heart of the trust between the government and its citizens.”
The prosecutors say the document was bound and applied only to the Southern District of Florida. Circuit Judge Raymond Lohier agreed with the prosecution’s argument and said that a decision by one US attorney’s office could not bind another to the same agreement.
Attorney Sigrid McCawley, who represents one of the witnesses and victims, Annie Farmer, said that the arguments presented by the defense team do not negate Maxwell’s actions, maintaining that victims waited “far too many years […] to get some small piece of justice deserved.” She believes the conviction and prison sentence should be upheld.
Maxwell is in a low-security prison, where she has access to amenities such as movies, Pilates, and yoga.
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