Ghislaine Maxwell has filed a petition asking a US federal judge to overturn her sex trafficking conviction and free her from prison, claiming “substantial new evidence”.
The disgraced British socialite and ex-girlfriend of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
In the petition, Maxwell’s lawyers argue that information which would have resulted in her exoneration at her 2021 trial was withheld, and that false testimony was presented to the jury.
They say the cumulative effect is a “complete miscarriage of justice.”
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Maxwell was jailed in 2022 for sex trafficking after recruiting young girls for Epstein during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Her latest legal bid for freedom came on Wednesday, two days ahead of the deadline for the release of the Epstein files – which include all material related to civil and criminal cases involving Epstein, who took his own life while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
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Ghislaine Maxwell said she would petition her conviction since August. File pic: PA/US Department of Justice
Maxwell’s lawyers have claimed that releasing the files – required after US President Donald Trump signed the Epstein Transparency Act – would harm her bid for a retrial.
The argument came in a letter from her legal team to a New York judge, which Sky News saw at the start of December. The lawyers argued the release of “grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations” would “foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial”.
The letter also reveals the plan for the habeas corpus petition, filed this week.
What is a habeas corpus petition?
According to the US Congress’s website, a habeas corpus petition is a procedure where “a federal court may review the legality of an individual’s incarceration”.
Essentially, it is a challenge to determine whether a court proceeding was fair and lawful.
Roughly translated from Latin, the phrase means “you should have the body” – interpreted as so that a person must be able to appear before a court so that a judge can assess if that person has been lawfully detained.
It’s mentioned in Article One of the US Constitution and cannot be suspended, “unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it”.
Earlier this year, however, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Mr Trump is “actively looking at” suspending the principle in order to make it easier to detain and deport immigrants.
The petition, filed in a Manhattan federal court, argues: “Since the conclusion of [Maxwell’s] trial, substantial new evidence has emerged from related civil actions, government disclosures, investigative reports, and documents demonstrating constitutional violations that undermined the fairness of her proceeding.
“In the light of the full evidentiary record, no reasonable juror would have convicted her.”
It is unclear what new material the lawyers are referring to.
In October, the US Supreme Court rejected Maxwell’s attempts to appeal against her sentence, meaning the petition or a presidential pardon from Mr Trump are her only chances at being freed before her projected release date in 2037.
Earlier in December a New York judge gave the go ahead for the US Department of Justice to publish material from Maxwell’s sex trafficking case, as part of the Epstein files release.
Democrats have released dozens of Epstein images
Several dozen photos related to Epstein have already been released by Democrats in the US, ahead of this week’s deadline for the release of the full files which are expected to include thousands of pages of material.
As it happened: Trump ‘knows nothing about’ images released
Last Friday, images of Mr Trump, Steve Bannon, former President Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and others were shared by the Democrats on social media.
Epstein images: Deep dive into latest photo release
There was no suggestion that the pictures implied any wrongdoing. The US president, Mr Bannon, Mr Clinton and the former prince have all denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
Other images included sex toys and condoms with Mr Trump’s likeness.
