WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein. On the first day of their new term, the justices declined to take up a case that would have drawn renewed attention to the sordid sexual-abuse saga after President Donald Trump's administration sought to tamp down criticism over its refusal to publicly release more investigative files from Epstein's case.
Lawyers for Maxwell, a British socialite, contended she never should have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, a New York financier. She is serving a 20-year prison term, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The justices did not explain why they turned away the appeal, a routine practice. Trump's Republican administration had urged the high court to stay out of the case. Maxwell's lawyers argued that a non-prosecution agreement reached in 2007 by federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein's lawyers also protected his potential co-conspirators from federal charges anywhere in the country.
Maxwell was prosecuted in Manhattan, and the federal appeals court there ruled that the prosecution was proper. A jury found her guilty of sex trafficking a teenage girl, among other charges. The trial featured accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein's homes.
Neither Maxwell's lawyers nor the federal Bureau of Prisons has explained the reason for her transfer, but one of her lawyers, David Oscar Markus, has insisted she is innocent. Markus also led her Supreme Court case.
Maxwell was interviewed in Florida after receiving limited immunity, allowing her to speak without fear of prosecution for anything she said, except in the event of a false statement. Records released in August indicated she denied witnessing any inappropriate interactions involving Trump.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges and was found dead in a New York jail cell a month later, in what investigators ruled a suicide. The Epstein scandal had implications within Trump's administration, giving rise to conspiracy theories about withheld information and damaging details.
Lawyers for Maxwell, a British socialite, contended she never should have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, a New York financier. She is serving a 20-year prison term, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
The justices did not explain why they turned away the appeal, a routine practice. Trump's Republican administration had urged the high court to stay out of the case. Maxwell's lawyers argued that a non-prosecution agreement reached in 2007 by federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein's lawyers also protected his potential co-conspirators from federal charges anywhere in the country.
Maxwell was prosecuted in Manhattan, and the federal appeals court there ruled that the prosecution was proper. A jury found her guilty of sex trafficking a teenage girl, among other charges. The trial featured accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein's homes.
Neither Maxwell's lawyers nor the federal Bureau of Prisons has explained the reason for her transfer, but one of her lawyers, David Oscar Markus, has insisted she is innocent. Markus also led her Supreme Court case.
Maxwell was interviewed in Florida after receiving limited immunity, allowing her to speak without fear of prosecution for anything she said, except in the event of a false statement. Records released in August indicated she denied witnessing any inappropriate interactions involving Trump.
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges and was found dead in a New York jail cell a month later, in what investigators ruled a suicide. The Epstein scandal had implications within Trump's administration, giving rise to conspiracy theories about withheld information and damaging details.
