Ghislaine Maxwell has asked to be freed from her 20-year sentence
Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, has requested to be released from her 20-year prison sentence, citing “substantial new evidence”.
The long-time associate of Epstein submitted an application to a US federal judge seeking to overturn her sex trafficking conviction, arguing that newly emerged evidence demonstrates constitutional violations tainted her trial, reports the Manchester Evening News..
In a habeas petition she indicated she would lodge since August, Maxwell asserted that information which could have led to her acquittal during her 2021 trial was suppressed, whilst false evidence was presented to the jury. She argued there was a “complete miscarriage of justice” resulting from the cumulative impact of the constitutional violations.
A habeas petition (or writ of habeas corpus petition) is a legal application for a court to examine the lawfulness of someone’s detention, requiring that the custodian (such as a prison official) present the prisoner before a judge to justify the imprisonment, functioning as a fundamental protection against unlawful confinement and arbitrary detention by ensuring due process. It challenges constitutional violations and is submitted by or on behalf of someone in custody.
Such violations can encompass ineffective legal representation or unfair trials. The petition seeks release or other relief as a final option.
“Since the conclusion of her trial, substantial new evidence has emerged from related civil actions, government disclosures, investigative reports, and documents demonstrating constitutional violations that undermined the fairness of her proceeding,” stated the filing in Manhattan federal court.
“In the light of the full evidentiary record, no reasonable juror would have convicted her.”
Maxwell lodged the petition two days before the planned release of records pertaining to her case.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, endorsed by Donald Trump, mandates the justice department to disclose files associated with Jeffrey Epstein. Under political pressure, the justice department has confirmed that the release will encompass 18 categories of investigative materials collected during the extensive sex trafficking investigation, including search warrants, financial records, victim interview notes, and data from electronic devices.
Epstein, a millionaire financier, was apprehended in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking. In August 2019, he was discovered dead in his New York cell, a death ruled as suicide.
Maxwell, a British socialite, was arrested in 2020 and found guilty of sex trafficking in December 2021. The justice department’s deputy interviewed her in July, and she was subsequently transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas.
Following the justice department’s request to a New York federal judge to allow public release of grand jury and discovery materials compiled prior to her trial, solicitor David Markus argued on her behalf that whilst Maxwell now “does not take a position” on unsealing case documents, doing so “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial” should her habeas petition prove successful.
Mr Markus contended that the records “contain untested and unproven allegations”. Judge Paul Engelmayer approved the justice department’s application to publicly disclose the materials, having previously rejected such requests before the legislation was enacted.
The judge noted that the materials “do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor”.
