The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal by Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, against her criminal conviction. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein. She is serving a 20-year prison term, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. What Maxwell's lawyers argued Her lawyers argued that Maxwell should never have been tried for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the disgraced financier. Maxwell's lawyers contend that her conviction was invalid because a non-prosecution and plea agreement that federal prosecutors made with Epstein in Florida in 2007 also shielded his associates and should have barred her criminal prosecution in New York. Reacting to the SC denying her appeal, Maxwell's lawyer said they are disappointed. "We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case," David O. Markus said in a statement. "But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done," he added. Case against Maxwell In denying her appeal, the SC justices let stand a lower court's decision upholding Maxwell's conviction. The justices did not explain their reasoning in turning away Maxwell's appeal. Maxwell who was arrested in 2020 for recruiting and grooming girls for sexual encounters with Epstein between 1994 and 2004 Maxwell was found guilty and convicted in 2021 by a jury in New York on charges including sex trafficking of a minor. Her name had recently resurfaced in the case that has refused to die down, despite the Trump administration's best efforts to suppress it. Last month, the House Oversight Committee released a digital copy of a birthday book compiled by Maxwell for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003, which had messages for him from the likes of Trump, Bill Clinton and former UK ambassador Peter Mandelson. No Epstein client list: DOJ Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. The Justice Department concluded in July that after reviewing more than 300 gigabytes of data, there was "no incriminating client list" nor was there any evidence that Epstein may have blackmailed prominent people. FBI Director Kash Patel said in congressional testimony on September 16 that there was no credible information that Epstein trafficked women and underage girls to anyone but himself.
