A federal decide in New York on Tuesday rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s problem to her conviction, discovering her claims “meritless” or “frivolous.”
Maxwell was making an attempt to vacate her conviction and 20-year jail sentence.
Maxwell was convicted of 5 felony counts, all arising from her participation with Jeffrey Epstein, within the sexual abuse of younger women over the course of a decade. A federal appeals courtroom upheld her conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up her petition.
In courtroom filings, Maxwell argued paperwork launched within the Epstein recordsdata supported her claims of constitutional violations, however U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer mentioned her claims have been “all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous.”
“And the purported ‘new’ evidence to which Maxwell points, principally materials released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, is largely irrelevant to the charges against Maxwell and does not support her claims of error,” the decide wrote. “On the contrary, to the extent it is relevant, far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges.”
Associates of Maxwell didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the decide’s ruling.
In his 67-page ruling, Engelmayer rejected every of what he referred to as the “10 principal claims” Maxwell raised in what he referred to as her “lengthy and meandering” professional se petition and supplemental filings containing “similarly discursive addenda.” Engelmayer denied her petition with out the evidentiary listening to Maxwell sought.
A doc that was included within the U.S. Department of Justice launch of the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata, photographed Feb. 10, 2026, reveals a photograph of Ghislaine Maxwell in 2019.
Jon Elswick/AP
Maxwell had argued — in an amended petition filed in April — that paperwork launched below the Epstein Files Transparency Act had uncovered constitutional and authorized violations that rendered her 2021 conviction “invalid, unsafe, and infirm.” She cited DOJ paperwork from the Epstein files that she contended provided new help to her arguments that the federal government withheld related proof, that witnesses testified falsely, and that attorneys for Epstein’s victims acted as de facto prosecutors in her legal case.
Maxwell’s petition “falls very far from the mark,” Engelmayer wrote, describing her claims as “demonstrably meritless” and “based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods.”
The decide additionally rebuked Maxwell’s rivalry that federal prosecutors selectively focused her as an alternative choice to Epstein, after he died by suicide whereas in federal custody in 2019.
“As the trial showed, the case against Maxwell was based on abundant admissible evidence establishing her knowing participation in enabling a notorious child sex abuser to carry out historically heinous crimes,” Engelmayer wrote. “Far from being discriminatory or unjust, this was the epitome of a virtuous prosecution. The Government and the jury justly held Maxwell accountable for gravely serious federal offenses.”
In her courtroom filings, Maxwell had requested Judge Engelmayer — ought to he resolve to reject her petition — to certify her case for an enchantment to the next courtroom.
But in his ruling Tuesday, Engelmayer wrote that Maxwell had not “made a substantial showing of a denial of a constitutional right, and appellate review is therefore not warranted.”
“Any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith,” Engelmayer wrote, figuring out that Maxwell wouldn’t be granted indigent standing — generally known as “in forma pauperis” — to pursue the enchantment with out the everyday courtroom prices.
If her habeas claims fail, Maxwell’s remaining choices would seemingly be restricted to a request to President Donald Trump for a pardon or clemency.