The ongoing Jeffrey Epstein files saga that has ensnared Capitol Hill, the Department of Justice, and even President Donald Trump has suddenly put the spotlight back on the one person in the Epstein saga currently behind bars.
Epstein’s right-hand woman and presumed accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell’s family has now come forward saying she “did not receive a fair trial” and is taking serious legal steps to have her conviction revisited.
Maxwell, now 63, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse, several years after he died in jail awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell is being held in federal prison in Florida and has filed a petition with the Supreme Court to vacate her 2021 conviction.
“Her legal team continues to fight her case in the Courts and will file its reply in short order to the Government’s opposition in the US Supreme Court,” Maxwell’s siblings said in a statement released this week on a website dedicated to her case.
The family’s defense of Maxwell comes amid a recent politically charged fight over the release of documents in Epstein’s case.
According to a NBC News report, Maxwell’s legal fight now stems from a 2007 deal related to the case.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in the statement to NBC News that he would be “surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to let the government break a deal,” referring to a 2007 agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida.
“He’s the ultimate dealmaker — and I’m sure he’d agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it,” Markus added.
“With all the talk about who’s being prosecuted and who isn’t, it’s especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the US government made and broke.”
The family, who said they “profoundly concur” with Markus’ statement, added that Maxwell’s legal team might file a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which — if it were granted — would allow Maxwell to appear before a judge to determine whether her detention is lawful.
Maxwell, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, petitioned the Supreme Court in April to wipe away her conviction.
Her legal team argued that Epstein’s non-prosecution and plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in 2008 protected Maxwell from future prosecution.
“Despite the existence of a non-prosecution agreement promising in plain language that the United States would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, the United States in fact prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell as a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein,” her attorneys wrote in the petition.
Maxwell was prosecuted on different charges by federal officials in Manhattan, according to NBC News.
“The NPA’s coconspirators clause, which ‘also agrees’ to forgo certain prosecution of coconspirators, cannot reasonably be construed as reflecting some ‘global’ scope broader than the Florida-based state and federal charges that Epstein resolved for himself,” the brief says.
“It would be extremely strange if the NPA left Epstein himself open to federal prosecution in another district — as eventually occurred — while protecting his coconspirators from prosecution anywhere.”
Republicans have also been calling for Maxwell to appear and testify before Congress, which House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested he was in favor of.
“I’m for transparency,” he said. “It’s a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide.”
Maxwell still faces a major uphill battle as lower courts have rejected Maxwell’s attorneys’ arguments, and on Monday, the Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to follow suit.
The Justice Department argued that the non-prosecution agreement in Florida does not protect Maxwell or other co-conspirators from being prosecuted in other jurisdictions around the country.
This is an ongoing story. Check back for further developments.