A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld the sex trafficking charges against Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping fund the sex trafficking activities of the late Jeffrey Epstein.
The Manhattan-based U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Maxwell will remain in a Florida prison and continue serving a 20-year sentence for procuring teenage girls as victims for Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
Maxwell's lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said in a statement he was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling but indicated he would pursue other options at the US Supreme Court.
“We are obviously very disappointed with the court's decision and strongly disagree with its outcome,” Aidala said. “We are cautiously optimistic that Ghislaine will get the justice she deserves from the United States Supreme Court.”
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Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted in 2021 of aiding Jeffrey Epstein in his sex trafficking operations between 1994 and 2004.
Maxwell, 62, was convicted in federal court in December 2021 of five counts of recruiting and tutoring underage girls for Epstein.
Her legal team appealed to the court in March, seeking a review of the statute of limitations, whether Maxwell's trial violated a previous non-prosecution agreement, allegations of jury misconduct, and Maxwell's sentence.
In her appeal, the British socialite argued that the jury who heard her case was discredited by failing to reveal that she had been sexually abused as a child, and that the court gave Maxwell an excessive sentence to “satisfy public outrage.”
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In a ruling on Tuesday, the appeals court upheld Maxwell's conviction, saying the sentence was “procedurally sound.”
On the left is Deborah Blohm, and on the right are Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Gwendolyn Beck (1995). (David Humph Studios/Getty Images)
The Epstein scandal has had a lasting impact on the reputations of individuals named in the public court documents that documented his sex trafficking empire.
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The document includes references to more than 150 people, including former presidents Clinton and Trump, magician David Copperfield, Prince Andrew, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, actor Kevin Spacey, lawyer Alan Dershowitz, the late New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and former Vice President Al Gore.
Epstein Committed suicide at age 66 He was arrested in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019, five weeks after being arrested and indicted on sex trafficking charges.
