Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell have filed paperwork requesting that a federal appellate court vacate her 2021 sex trafficking conviction and dismiss the indictment.
According to Maxwell’s team, prosecutors treated Maxwell as a proxy for her longtime associate Jeffrey Epstein to appease the public.
Maxwell was found guilty in December 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors. Her attorneys also argued that one of the jurors failed to disclose his own history of sexual abuse while jury selections were taking place.
“Irrespective of whether the juror’s false statements were intentional, which they clearly were, the similarities between the traumatic experiences described by the juror and the victims in the case, together with the juror’s public statements, established the juror’s bias,” the lawyers wrote.
They add that she cannot be blamed for Epstein’s crimes.
“In its zeal to pin the blame for its own incompetence and for Epstein’s crimes on Maxwell, the government breached its promise not to prosecute Maxwell, charged her with time-barred offenses, resurrected and recast decades-old allegations for conduct previously ascribed to Epstein and other named assistants, and joined forces with complainants’ civil attorneys, whose interests were financial, to develop new allegations that would support charges against Maxwell,” the brief said.
The judge is yet to rule on the motion.