US urges appeals court to uphold Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking conviction
By Jonathan Stempel and Jack Queen
NEW YORK, June 30 (Reuters) -The U.S. government has urged an appeals court to uphold Ghislaine Maxwell's conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
In a Thursday night filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, federal prosecutors said none of Maxwell's legal arguments about the fairness of her trial held merit.
"The government’s evidence at trial established that over the course of a decade, Maxwell facilitated and participated in the sexual abuse of multiple young girls," prosecutors said.
Arthur Aidala, a lawyer for Maxwell, was not immediately available for comment outside business hours.
Maxwell, 61, is behind bars in Tallahassee, Florida, after a Manhattan jury convicted her in December 2021 on five charges for recruiting and grooming four girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Epstein committed suicide at age 66 in August 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell, where he was awaiting trial for sex trafficking. Hundreds of women have said he abused them.
In her appeal, Maxwell, the daughter of late British media mogul Robert Maxwell, accused prosecutors of making her a scapegoat because Epstein was dead and "public outrage" demanded that someone else absorb the blame.
Her lawyers also offered several arguments for dismissing the case or granting a new trial.
These included that Maxwell was immune from prosecution, prosecutors waited too long to charge her, and Epstein's 2007 non-prosecution agreement arising from alleged abuse at his Palm Beach, Florida mansion also immunized her.
The lawyers also said one juror should have disclosed before trial that he had been sexually abused as a child.
Maxwell's accusers have said she and Epstein at first made them feel welcome in their orbit, before Epstein began demanding sexualized massages.
Others who were friendly with Epstein have seen their reputations tarred or ruined, among them Britain's Prince Andrew and former JPMorgan Chase JPM.N executive and Barclays BARC.L chief executive Jes Staley.
JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank DBKGn.DE, which both had Epstein as a client, are paying a combined $365 million to Epstein's accusers over their work for him. The US Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a home, is also suing JPMorgan.
Maxwell is eligible for release in July 2037, with credit for good behavior and the two years she spent in jail before being imprisoned.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Jack Queen in New York; edting Robert Birsel
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
