A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the sex trafficking offense of Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction for assisting late sex-trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein.
The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Maxwell will remain in a Florida prison, where she will continue to serve a 20-year sentence for her role of procuring teen girls as victims for Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
In a statement, Maxwell’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said that they were “very disappointed” in the ruling, but signaled that they would pursue other options with the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We are obviously very disappointed by the court’s decision, and we vehemently disagree with the outcome,” Aidala said. “We are cautiously optimistic that Ghislaine will get the justice she deserves from the Supreme Court of the United States.”
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Maxwell, 62, was convicted in federal court in December 2021, on five charges for having recruited and groomed underage girls for Epstein.
Her attorneys in March filed an appeal to the court for a review of the statute of limitations, whether Maxwell’s trial violated a prior non-prosecution agreement, an allegation of juror misconduct, and Maxwell’s sentencing.
In the appeal, the British socialite argued that the jury that oversaw her case was compromised by a juror who failed to disclose that he had been sexually abused as a child, and that the court gave Maxwell an excessive sentence to “satisfy public outrage.”
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In the ruling Tuesday, the appeals court affirmed and upheld Maxwell’s convictions, saying that her sentence was “procedurally reasonable.”
The Epstein scandal has made a lasting impact on the reputations of the individuals listed in unsealed court documents recording the sex trafficking empire.
The documents include references to more than 150 people, including, former Presidents Clinton and Trump, the magician David Copperfield, Prince Andrew, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, actor Kevin Spacey, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, the late New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, and former Vice President Al Gore, among others.
Epstein died by suicide at age 66 in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell, five weeks after being arrested and charged with sex trafficking.
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