Judge rejects Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘frivolous’ attempt to throw out trafficking convictions after Epstein files release — The Independent

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Judge rejects Ghislaine Maxwell’s ‘frivolous’ attempt to throw out trafficking convictions after Epstein files release — The Independent | AIPROPX

In anything, Maxwell’s latest ‘meritless’ attempt to escape her sentence only further ‘incriminates her,’ judge says

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A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s “lengthy and rambling” attempt to throw out her sex trafficking convictions after she claimed new evidence released by the Department of Justice in connection with her associate Jeffrey Epstein proved her rights at trial and sentencing were violated.

“Maxwell’s claims are all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous,” according to Tuesday’s order from New York District Judge Paul Engelmayer.

Most of her arguments, which she filed herself while imprisoned, were already turned down in appeals courts, while the alleged “new” evidence from the Justice Department’s Epstein files are “largely irrelevant" to her case, the judge said.

“On the contrary, to the extent it is relevant, far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges,” he added.

Maxwell, who is now representing herself in her appeals, was found guilty of recruiting and grooming young women and girls for Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting his own trial on trafficking charges. In October, the Supreme Court declined to review whether prosecutors fairly brought a case against her.

Last year, President Donald Trump reluctantly agreed to sign a measure approved by Congress that compels the Justice Department to release all investigative materials from the Epstein case in its possession.

Then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche also interviewed Maxwell as part of the Justice Department’s revived investigations into Epstein-related cases. Shortly after the interview last summer, Maxwell was transferred to a minimum-security women’s prison in Texas.

In December, she filed a petition for her release from prison, citing “substantial new evidence” had emerged in her case, alleging constitutional violations that she believes undermined her right to a fair trial. She argued her 2021 conviction should be rendered “invalid, unsafe and infirm,” she wrote earlier this year.

After the release of millions of documents and images in connection with investigations into Epstein and Maxwell, Maxwell argued that “further factual development is necessary.”

She submitted her latest request, which she wrote herself, inside a USB drive mailed in a FedEx envelope postmarked April 16, according to court documents.

But her arguments are nearly all “procedurally barred” from being put forward at this stage, after “the overwhelming testimonial and documentary evidence” at trial “conclusively established her guilt,” Judge Engelmayer wrote Tuesday.

Her petition’s claims “are demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods,” he added.

“There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial,” the judge wrote.

The Independent has requested comment from Maxwell’s attorney.

Maxwell is the only convicted accomplice in the Epstein investigation to have talked to a House committee investigating the dead sex offender a nd an alleged network of powerful figures connected to the wealthy and well-connected financier.

She invoked her Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer any of the panel’s questions during a February deposition, and she has refused to voluntarily testify to Congress without assurances that she can receive some form of clemency. Trump and some House Republicans have not unequivocally rejected the idea of a presidential pardon, but Blanche has said he “ruled out” recommending one.