RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Topline A federal judge rejected Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell’s request to overturn her conviction Tuesday, ruling Maxwell’s petition was “meritless” and the Epstein files she highlighted as evidence in her defense actually only “incriminates her” further.
Judge Paul G. Engelmayer rejected Maxwell’s petition asking the court to throw out her conviction and prison sentence, after she was convicted on sex trafficking charges connected to her work with Jeffrey Epstein and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Maxwell filed a petition in December—herself, without legal representation—asking the court to throw out her conviction and release her from prison, claiming a series of issues with her conviction like alleged juror misconduct, that she was shielded under Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement and that the government “selectively” prosecuted her rather than other Epstein allies.
Engelmayer classified her petition as “rambling” Tuesday and ruled her legal arguments were “all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous,” with many of them already having been made unsuccessfully when she previously tried to appeal her case.
She also made “dozens” of other claims citing documents released as part of the government’s Epstein files, which Engelmayer ruled were “largely irrelevant to the charges against Maxwell”—and “far from exculpating her,” the evidence instead “incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges.”
Engelmayer’s order also rejected the status that would be needed for Maxwell to appeal his decision, with the judge noting, “any appeal from this order would not be taken in good faith.”
That means Maxwell’s only hope at getting out of prison and having her record cleared at this point would be getting a pardon from President Donald Trump.
Engelmayer noted in his ruling Tuesday that claims Maxwell made in her petition “were already considered and rejected by” a federal appeals court. “To the extent Maxwell argues that new evidence has come to light ostensibly supporting those claims, those materials predate her direct appeals, are irrelevant, and/or do not warrant the relief she seeks,” the judge continued. “They are also meritless.”
There’s so far no indication that Trump plans to pardon or grant clemency to Maxwell, whom he used to socialize with. Trump has not committed either way himself on whether or not he’ll pardon Maxwell, though he said in October he would “look at” pardoning her after the Supreme Court rejected her case. “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider it—I don’t know anything about it,” the president said at the time, after previously saying in July 2025, “I’m allowed to do [pardon her], but it’s something I have not thought about.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has more explicitly rejected the idea of a pardon, saying in February that the last time she spoke to the president about the potential pardon, “He said it’s not something he’s considering or thinking about.” Maxwell’s attorney David Oscar Markus has previously said she will ask Trump for clemency when news about the Epstein files dies down, claiming in April, “There’s a good chance and for good reason that she would get a pardon.”
Maxwell is known as Epstein’s primary associate in his alleged sex trafficking scheme, as victims have alleged she helped to recruit women for the late financier and participated in their abuse. She was convicted in 2021 on charges of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to participate in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor. Engelmayer’s ruling Tuesday marks the latest in a string of court losses Maxwell has faced as she’s unsuccessfully tried to appeal her case: her request for a new trial was denied in 2022, her conviction was upheld on appeal in 2024, and the Supreme Court denied her request for it to take up her case last year.
Ghislaine Maxwell Will Ask Trump For Pardon After Epstein News Dies Down, Attorney Says (Forbes)
Ghislaine Maxwell’s Conviction Stands As Supreme Court Rejects Case (Forbes)
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