DENIED

Ghislaine Maxwell Loses Appeal for Sex Trafficking Conviction

A Manhattan court rejected Maxwell’s argument that she was protected from prosecution.

One-time British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell has lost her appeal of a 2021 conviction for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls. Maxwell, who was convicted of charges related to recruiting and grooming four underage girls, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. Maxwell’s appeal had centered around a 2007 non-prosecution agreement made between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Florida, which her lawyers argued prevented her from being prosecuted 13 years later in New York. Prosecutors countered that the agreement was only binding in Florida and didn’t apply in this case. Maxwell was also not named among those explicitly protected in the agreement. Her appeal was rejected by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is based in Manhattan. Epstein died five years ago in his jail cell in what was ruled a suicide while facing sex-trafficking charges, although many members of the public have raised conspiracy theories about his cause of death.