On Wednesday, Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend and close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, petitioned a federal judge to overturn her sex trafficking conviction and release her from a 20-year prison sentence, claiming that “substantial new evidence” has surfaced that indicates constitutional violations tainted her trial.
In a habeas petition she has been preparing since August, Maxwell argued that critical information that could have led to her exoneration during her 2021 trial was suppressed, and that false testimony was given to the jury.
She asserted that the combined effect of these constitutional violations created a “complete miscarriage of justice.”
The filing in Manhattan federal court stated, “Since the end of her trial, significant new evidence has emerged from related civil cases, government disclosures, investigative reports, and documents that reveal constitutional infringements that compromised the fairness of her trial.”
It further claimed, “Given the comprehensive evidentiary record, no reasonable juror would have found her guilty.”
This filing was submitted just two days before records related to her case were set to be made public following U.S. President Donald Trump’s enactment of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. This law, which was passed after extensive public and political advocacy, mandates that the U.S. Justice Department release Epstein-related documents by Friday.
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed legislation ordering the Justice Department to release documents from its long-running investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein by Dec. 19. However, as CBC’s Mike Crawley explains, there’s a loophole that could prevent some information from being made public.
Relocated to lower security facility
The Justice Department, compelled to act, has announced plans to disclose 18 categories of investigative materials collected during the extensive sex trafficking investigation. These categories include search warrants, financial documents, notes from victim interviews, and data from electronic devices.
Epstein, a wealthy financier, was convicted of state sex crimes in 2008 and was arrested again in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. He was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in New York a month later, with his death ruled a suicide.
Maxwell, a British socialite, was arrested a year after Epstein and was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021. She was interviewed by the Justice Department’s second-in-command in July and subsequently transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.
Following the Justice Department’s request for a New York federal judge to allow the public release of grand jury and discovery materials collected prior to her trial, attorney David Markus stated on her behalf that while Maxwell currently “does not take a position” on the unsealing of documents from her case, such a move “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial” if her habeas petition succeeds.
Markus noted that the records “contain untested and unproven allegations.”
Last week, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in Manhattan approved the Justice Department’s motion to publicly release the materials.
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Transcripts released from Maxwell’s interview about Epstein
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Politics and people in power shouldn’t get in the way of the truth about Epstein, say survivors
During a news conference on a different topic on Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton stated that he would adhere to the law and the judge’s directives regarding the records.
Engelmayer, who along with other judges had earlier denied Justice Department requests to unseal documents prior to the transparency law being enacted, mentioned that the materials “do not identify any individual other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has signed the bill allowing the release of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. However, potential loopholes in the legislation may mean that the Trump administration will not disclose all of the files.
