Ghislaine Maxwell’s Bid to Overturn Sex Trafficking Conviction Rejected by Federal Judge

A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to overturn her sex trafficking conviction and 20-year prison sentence, finding that her constitutional claims and evidence from newly released Jeffrey Epstein files did not provide grounds to set aside the verdict.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer denied Maxwell’s habeas corpus petition Tuesday in a 67-page ruling in Manhattan federal court. Maxwell, who represented herself, claimed that withheld information, allegedly false testimony and evidence released through the Epstein files showed that her 2021 conviction resulted from a miscarriage of justice.

Engelmayer found that nearly all of Maxwell’s claims were procedurally barred because they had already been addressed or could have been raised earlier. He also concluded that the evidence presented at trial overwhelmingly supported the jury’s verdict and that many of the arguments in her petition rested on speculation or unsupported assertions.

Maxwell relied in part on records released by the Justice Department under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. She argued that the material supported her claims that prosecutors withheld information and violated her constitutional rights.

The judge found that much of the newly released material had little connection to the charges against Maxwell. Where the documents were relevant, he concluded that they reinforced evidence and legal findings supporting her conviction. Engelmayer also denied her request for an evidentiary hearing, finding no factual dispute that required further testimony or evidence.

Habeas corpus is a legal remedy that allows a person in custody to challenge whether that imprisonment is lawful. Federal prisoners can seek post-conviction relief for serious constitutional or legal errors, but the review becomes narrower after a conviction has gone through the normal appeals process. Claims already decided, or arguments that could have been raised earlier, are generally barred unless a recognized exception applies.

To reopen a final conviction based on evidence that surfaces later, the material must support a legally viable claim and be significant enough to affect the conviction or verdict. Courts describe evidence as material when it has a meaningful connection to an issue that could have changed the outcome.

Maxwell also accused prosecutors of selectively targeting her after Epstein died in federal custody in 2019. She argued that she had been made a scapegoat while other alleged participants were never charged, pointing to people identified as co-conspirators in government records and others who reached settlements with Epstein’s victims.

A selective prosecution claim requires evidence that similarly situated people were treated differently and that prosecutors acted for an improper or unconstitutional reason. Engelmayer found that Maxwell had failed to identify an uncharged person whose conduct was comparable to the role the evidence showed she played in Epstein’s crimes. He also ruled that the argument could have been raised earlier.

A federal jury convicted Maxwell in December 2021 of five felony charges arising from her role in recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein during the 1990s and early 2000s. She was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison.

Her conviction was upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2024. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in October 2025 to hear her challenge based on a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors in Florida and Epstein, which Maxwell had argued also protected her from prosecution.

Engelmayer declined to issue a certificate of appealability from Tuesday’s ruling after finding that Maxwell had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied. He also ruled that an appeal from the order would not be taken in good faith.

Maxwell remains incarcerated at the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas under her 20-year sentence.