Due to the ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, the British socialite who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in prison in Florida will continue to be incarcerated.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction for aiding the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein in abusing teenage girls sexually was upheld by a US appeals court on Tuesday.
Due to the ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, the British socialite who is currently serving a 20-year sentence in prison in Florida will continue to be incarcerated.
A Maxwell attorney hinted that she would file an appeal with the US Supreme Court.
In December 2021, Maxwell, then sixty-two, was found guilty on five counts of recruiting and preparing four minors for abuse by her ex-boyfriend Epstein from 1994 to 2004.
Maxwell argued that Epstein was protected from prosecution in New York, where she was charged with a crime in 2020, by her 2007 agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida not to be prosecuted there, but the three-judge panel rejected this argument.
It also dismissed Maxwell’s arguments that the sentence was excessively lengthy and that the trial was tainted because a juror had concealed that he had experienced childhood sexual abuse.
Circuit Judge Jose Cabranes concluded that Maxwell’s punishment was procedurally reasonable in his panel opinion.
He quoted the trial judge’s opinion that Maxwell’s “important and long-lasting harm it inflicted” and his “pivotal role in facilitating the abuse of the underaged girls through a series of deceptive tactics” were reflected in the sentence.
The scandal has damaged or destroyed the reputations of people who were once close friends, such as Prince Andrew of Britain and Jes Staley, the former CEO of Barclays, who collaborated with Epstein when he was employed by JPMorgan Chase.
In a Manhattan jail cell, Epstein committed suicide in 2019 at the age of 66, five weeks after being taken into custody and accused of sex trafficking.
Maxwell’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, released a statement saying, “We are obviously very disappointed by the court’s decision and 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.”
SCAPEGOATING CLAIM
Maxwell contended in her appeal that allusions to the “United States” in Epstein’s 2007 nonprosecution agreement indicated that the government intended to prevent prosecutions of “potential co-conspirators” across the country, which included four other individuals mentioned in the agreement.
A prosecutor retorted that Epstein’s agreement was only meant to bind prosecutors in southern Florida and that the reference to the United States was a passing reference.
Cabranes concurred, pointing out that neither the text of the agreement nor its history of negotiations implied that it bound New York prosecutors.
In the end, Epstein entered a guilty plea in 2008 to a Florida state prosecution charge and was sentenced to 13 months in prison—a punishment that is now largely viewed as being too light.
Additionally, Maxwell claimed in her appeal that because Epstein had passed away and the public wanted someone else to bear the blame, she had been singled out by the prosecution.
That argument was not addressed in Tuesday’s decision.
Following his passing, Epstein’s victims have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars from both his estate and JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank, which they claimed were involved in transactions that provided funding for his wrongdoing.
The attorney for numerous Epstein accusers, Sigrid McCawley, referred to Tuesday’s ruling as “another step towards justice.”
In Tallahassee, Florida, Maxwell is incarcerated in a low-security facility to fulfill her sentence. July 2037 is when she is eligible for release.
