The Supreme Court rejected Monday convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s attempt to have her conviction reversed.
Maxwell asked the court to overturn her 2021 sentencing on sex trafficking charges for acting as a longtime accomplice to deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The court declined to hear Maxwell’s case, ensuring her 20-year prison sentence remains unchanged.
The justices met privately last month before the start of the Supreme Court’s next term to discuss appeals and other cases. The likelihood the Supreme Court hears an individual’s appeal is extremely low.
Maxwell’s appeal was based on the non-prosecution agreement Epstein and former south Florida U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta agreed to in 2008. Acosta’s infamous deal let Epstein off the hook from federal charges and contained a provision letting off a list of Epstein’s potential co-conspirators. Although Maxwell was not on the list, the wording of the non-prosecution deal suggests that it encompassed all of Epstein’s possible co-conspirators.
The House Oversight Committee released the non-prosecution agreement in September as part of its investigation into Epstein’s activities and the federal government’s documents related to Epstein. The committee’s disclosures are all publicly available and contain redactions to protect victim identities.
Acosta testified behind closed doors on September 19 for the Oversight Committee’s investigation. When explaining the Epstein agreement, he referenced potential evidentiary issues and questions about whether the case was local or federal, the committee said in a readout. Acosta did not anticipate that Epstein’s work release and the state of Florida’s lenient handling of the case. Epstein spent a short time in jail after being convicted in 2008 on state level sex crime charges.
After his testimony, Oversight Committee Democrats slammed Acosta for not showing remorse over the Epstein deal and not taking the statements of Epstein’s victims seriously. Epstein’s victims have urged Congress and the Trump administration to provide maximum transparency and release all of the government’s Epstein files. Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) promised the transcript of Acosta’s interview will be released at a later date. The committee is also working with Epstein’s estate to release more documents pertaining to his finances and social life.
The Oversight Committee is seeking testimony from Maxwell for its ongoing investigation. As Maxwell’s attorneys negotiated with Comer, they asked to have her testify after the Supreme Court evaluated her appeal. Gaps remain between the two sides because of Maxwell’s demands for immunity in exchange for testimony.
Maxwell gave an interview to the Trump Justice Department in July where she gave President Trump fawning praise but did not reveal new information. She is seeking a pardon from Trump and got moved to a lower security prison after the Justice Department interview.
Epstein and Trump were friends for the better part of 15 years from the 1990s through the mid 2000s. Acosta and former Attorney General Bill Barr have both said there was nothing implicating Trump in the Epstein case. None of the Epstein victims have accused Trump of wrongdoing.
The Trump administration’s decision earlier this year to keep the federal government’s Epstein files under wraps sparked renewed interest in Epstein’s disturbing activities. Trump has called the files a “hoax” and likened them to the false claims of collusion between him and Russia. At the start of September, the Trump administration handed over some Epstein documents to the Oversight Committee, but many of them were already in the public domain.
Among the Oversight Committee’s batch of recently released Epstein documents was a mysterious letter Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein for the sex predator’s 50th birthday in 2003. The letter, written on a silhouette of a woman, was part of a book Maxwell put together for Epstein’s birthday. Trump has called the letter fake and sued the Wall Street Journal for first reporting on it. White House officials have similarly claimed the letter is fake based on the signature Trump used to sign it.
Epstein died in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges in Manhattan. The circumstances surrounding his death remain the subject of fascination because of Epstein’s sordid activities and links to powerful people. Epstein’s death was officially ruled a suicide, a conclusion the Trump administration affirmed. The administration also found no evidence Epstein possessed a “client list” or used his sex trafficking ring to blackmail his powerful contacts.