A U.S. appeals court upheld Ghislaine Maxwell's conviction on Tuesday for assisting the disgraced, late-financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse teenage girls.
The British socialite will continue serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida prison as a result of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision. Maxwell's attorney indicated that she would file an appeal with the US Supreme Court.
Maxwell, 62, was found guilty in December 2021 of five counts of recruiting and grooming four underage girls for her ex-boyfriend, Epstein, between the years of 1994 and 2004. Maxwell's claim that Epstein's 2007 agreement with prosecutors in Florida to avoid prosecution should prevent her from being tried in New York was rejected by a three-judge panel.
Also refuted were Maxwell's claims that one juror's lack of disclosure of his sexual abuse as a child tainted the trial, and the claim that her sentence was too long. Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes wrote for the panel, arguing that Maxwell's punishment was procedurally appropriate, citing the trial judge's assessment that the sentence reflected Maxwell's “pivotal role in facilitating the abuse of the underage girls through a series of deceptive tactics” and the “significant and lasting harm it inflicted”.
Former friends of Epstein, Prince Andrew in the UK and former Barclays CEO Jes Staley, who worked with Epstein while he was employed by JPMorgan Chase, have been tainted or destroyed by the scandal. Five weeks after being detained and charged with sex trafficking, Epstein is said to have died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell at the age of 66 in 2019.
In a statement, Maxwell's attorney, Arthur Aidala, stated that “we are obviously very disappointed by the court's decision” and that “we vehemently disagree with the outcome. We are cautiously optimistic that Ghislaine will get the justice she deserves from the Supreme Court of the United States.”
According to Maxwell’s appeal, references to the “United States” in Epstein's 2007 nonprosecution agreement indicated the government's intention to halt prosecutions of potential co-conspirators, including four others named in the agreement.
The United States reference was a throwaway reference, according to a prosecutor, and only prosecutors in southern Florida were bound by Epstein's agreement. Cabranes agreed, noting that nothing about the agreement's text or negotiation history suggested it bound New York's prosecutors.
In 2008, Epstein admitted guilt to a charge brought by the state prosecutor in Florida and was sentenced to 13 months in prison, a sentence that is now widely accepted as being excessively lenient.
In her appeal, Maxwell claimed that because Epstein was dead and the public wanted someone else to be held accountable, prosecutors scapegoated her. That contention was left out of the decision on Tuesday.
His victims have received hundreds of millions of dollars from his estate as well as from Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase since Epstein's death. Sigrid McCawley, a lawyer for dozens of Epstein accusers, called Tuesday's decision “another step towards justice”.
Maxwell, serving her sentence in a low-security prison Florida, is not eligible for release until July 2037.
