NEW YORK (AP) — Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend and longtime associate, asked a federal judge Wednesday to vacate her sex trafficking conviction and spare her a 20-year prison sentence, saying “substantial new evidence” emerged that demonstrated constitutional violations that undermined her trial.
In a habeas corpus petition she has pledged to file since August, Maxwell maintains that information that could have led to her acquittal at her 2021 trial was withheld and false testimony was given to the jury.
She said the cumulative effect of constitutional violations resulted in a “complete miscarriage of justice.”
A petition for writ of habeas corpus (or writ of habeas corpus) is a legal request for a court to review the legality of a person’s detention, requiring a guardian (such as a prison officer) to bring the prisoner before a judge to justify the incarceration, by ensuring due process as a fundamental safeguard against unlawful imprisonment and arbitrary detention. It is brought by or on behalf of a detainee to challenge constitutional violations, such as ineffective legal counsel or an unfair trial, and to seek release or other relief, often as a last resort after appeals have been exhausted.
“Since the conclusion of her trial, substantial new evidence has emerged from related civil litigation, government disclosures, investigative reports, and documents evidencing constitutional violations, compromising the fairness of her proceedings,” according to documents filed in Manhattan federal court. “Based on the complete evidentiary record, no reasonable juror would have found her guilty.”
The filing comes just two days before records from her case are scheduled to be released publicly as President Donald Trump signs the Epstein Documents Transparency Act. The law, signed after months of public and political pressure, gave the Justice Department until Dec. 19 to make Epstein-related records available to the public.
Under a new transparency law, the Justice Department said it plans to release 18 categories of investigative materials collected in the massive sex trafficking investigation, including search warrants, financial records, victim interviews and electronic device data.
Millionaire financier Epstein was arrested in July 2019 on sex trafficking charges. A month later, he was found dead in his cell at a federal prison in New York, and his death was ruled a suicide. British socialite Maxwell was arrested a year later and convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021. She was interviewed by the Justice Department’s No. 2 man in July and was soon transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.
After the Justice Department asked a federal judge in New York to allow the public release of evidence collected by the grand jury and her trial, attorney David Marcus wrote on her behalf that while Maxwell is “not taking a position now” on unsealing documents in her case, doing so “would create serious undue prejudice and preclude the possibility of a fair retrial” if her habeas petition is successful.
Marcus said the records “contain untested and unsubstantiated allegations.”
Last week, Judge Paul A. Engelmeier in Manhattan granted the Justice Department’s request to publicly release the materials.
On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said at a news conference on a separate topic that he would comply with the law and the judge’s order regarding records.
Engelmeyer, who along with other judges had previously denied the Justice Department’s unseal request before the transparency law was passed, said the materials “do not indicate that anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell had sexual contact with a minor.”
