A federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday upheld the sex crime conviction of longtime sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell. Jeffrey Epstein.
Ghislaine, in March, asked the US appeals court for the Second Circuit to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and hooking up the underage girls Epstein sexually assaulted, arguing she was immunized by a deal federal prosecutors in Florida struck with Epstein in 2007.
On Tuesday, the appeals court ruled that Maxwell was not covered by Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement, saying the alleged crimes fell within the statute of limitations.
Maxwell’s lawyers had argued that she was made a “proxy” for Epstein, who died of suicide in prison awaiting trial, to “satisfy public outrage” at his behavior.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City.
Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Maxwell was sentenced in 2021 after prosecutors said she worked with Epstein from 1994 to 2004 to identify girls, groom them and then transport them to Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico and elsewhere. The girls – some of whom were as young as 14 – were then sexually assaulted, often under the guise of a “massage”, prosecutors said.
Maxwell is currently incarcerated in a low-security prison in Tallahassee and is eligible for release in 2037.