The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal of her criminal conviction for helping Jeffrey Epstein recruit and groom teenage girls for sexual abuse. This decision leaves her 20-year prison sentence and three felony convictions intact, according to NBC News. Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, argued that a 2007 nonprosecution agreement between Epstein and then–U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta in Florida should have protected her from one of the charges in her New York trial. Markus said the defense was “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case but vowed to continue fighting, insisting that “serious legal and factual issues remain.”
The appeal centered on whether the Florida agreement applied only within that judicial district or extended to federal prosecutors nationwide. The Justice Department urged the Court to deny Maxwell’s petition, with Solicitor General D. John Sauer noting that there was no evidence the deal was ever authorized to cover other districts. Maxwell was convicted in 2022 of recruiting and grooming girls as young as 14 for Epstein’s sexual exploitation. Prosecutors said she befriended victims and sometimes was present during the assaults. Her conviction followed renewed public scrutiny of Epstein’s trafficking network, which collapsed after his death in a New York jail in 2019—officially ruled a suicide despite persistent conspiracy theories.
Recently released Justice Department materials revealed that Maxwell told investigators she was “very central” to the creation of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). She claimed Epstein supported her involvement, though she distanced herself from his attempts to gain influence. Maxwell also stated she accompanied former President Bill Clinton to Davos but denied that he ever visited Epstein’s private island. After her conviction, Maxwell was transferred from a Florida prison to a lower-security facility in Texas, where she continues to serve her sentence.
