Ghislaine Maxwell will take her case to the Supreme Court if she loses her appeal of her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction that led to a 20-year prison sentence, her lawyers said today.
Lawyer Arthur Aidala said Maxwell would fight on because her case could ‘put a stake at the heart of the trust’ between citizens and their government if she loses.
Aidala said the US government agreed not to prosecute Maxwell as part of a deal with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in 2008, and it couldn’t just “rip it up.”
Maxwell’s legal team said it was ‘cautiously optimistic’ after the hearing before a three-judge panel in New York, which reserved its decision.
Lawyers for the disgraced British socialite are seeking to overturn her sex-trafficking conviction for luring girls as young as 14 to Epstein.
She is serving 20 years in prison at a prison in Tallahassee, Florida, with a release date of 2037 if her appeal fails.
An appeal hearing was held in New York today for British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who listened on the phone during the 20-minute hearing
Maxwell’s lawyers said she will take her case all the way to the Supreme Court if she loses her appeal
Maxwell’s close relationship with Epstein was well-documented publicly over the years, but she still denies knowledge of the dead financier’s crimes
Aidala appeared at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York in the same courthouse where Maxwell was tried.
Maxwell, 62, listened on a phone line to the 20-minute hearing.
Afterward, Aidala said Epstein’s 2008 plea deal, in which he served just 15 months in prison for soliciting underage girls for prosecution, provided immunity for Maxwell under a provision related to co-conspirators.
Maxwell’s lawyer Arthur Aidala said he was ‘cautiously optimistic’ after the hearing before a three-judge panel who reserved their decision
Aidala said the agreement with Florida prosecutors referred to “the United States,” which he said referred to prosecutors nationwide.
It did so unfairly when Maxwell was brought to trial by New York prosecutors in 2020 after Epstein hanged himself while awaiting his own trial.
‘You cannot tear up an agreement between the government and its citizens,’ said Aidala.
Aidala said Maxwell was ‘very optimistic’ that her appeal would win and he called her a ‘very intelligent’ woman who helped with the case.
If they lose the appeal, they will go to the Supreme Court because ‘it’s not just about Ghislaine, it’s about the whole system’ Aidala said.
‘It puts an effort at the heart of the trust that goes between (the government) and the citizens of this country’
In court, Diana Fabi Samson, another of Maxwell’s lawyers, said the US government made a ‘promise’ to Maxwell with Epstein’s plea agreement.
She called Epstein’s plea deal “strange” and “very unusual” and said that if prosecutors did not do so, it would put a “dagger in the heart of the trust between the government and its citizens.”
Judge Raymond Lohier challenged Fabi Samson that a Justice Department manual said non-prosecution agreements should be the “opposite” of what she suggested, meaning Maxwell could have been prosecuted.
Fabi Samson replied that the agreement was ‘not a shield to allow the government to get out of its promises’.
Maxwell, who procured minors for sex offender and one-time boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, is serving 20 years in a Tallahassee prison with a release date of 2037
Despite the appalling nature of her crimes, Maxwell and Epstein’s circle of friends included Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other wealthy businessmen
She also raised the idea that Epstein, who gave his associates millions of dollars in payments, may have selflessly wanted to avoid others being sent to prison.
Epstein asked for immunity for his staff so ‘no one else would take the blame for what he did’, said Fabi Samson.
After the hearing, she said she felt ‘cautiously optimistic’ that Maxwell would win.
Maxwell’s conviction marked a stunning fall from grace for the daughter of the late and disgraced British media magnate Robert Maxwell.
Born into extreme privilege, Maxwell began dating Epstein in the early 1990s, after her father’s mysterious death on his yacht in the Canary Islands changed her world.
During her trial, prosecutors described how she acted as the manager of Epstein’s Florida mansion, where she would ensure a steady supply of teenage girls were available for “massage.”
Despite the horrific nature of her crimes, Maxwell and Epstein socialized in rarefied circles and were friends with Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew and other wealthy businessmen.
Early reports revealed how the disgraced British socialite struggled to cope with her new life behind bars, refusing to eat and complaining bitterly to prison authorities that her clothes did not fit
Since arriving at FCI Tallahassee, Maxwell has reportedly started teaching an etiquette class and has been doing regular pilates and yoga sessions
During Maxwell’s trial, she was held in the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
She complained bitterly about her treatment, saying she was losing weight, her hair was falling out, and that guards were waking her up every 20 minutes and shining a light into her cell.
Since arriving at FCI Tallahassee, Maxwell has reportedly started teaching an etiquette class and has been doing regular pilates and yoga sessions.
An avid runner, she has been seen running around the outdoor track at the prison as she tries to keep in shape.
Maxwell, known as prisoner 02879-509, has also used the four languages she knows to help other inmates understand their legal documents.
Among those she is said to have become close to is Narcy Novack, a ‘sadistic’ woman serving life for orchestrating the murders of her millionaire husband and his mother.
Epstein was due to stand trial for Maxwell, but killed himself in custody in August 2019 before his case could be heard.