By Aaron Miller-
Ghislaine Maxwell has launched an appeal against her conviction for helping disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
In a filing with the 2nd US Circuit of Appeals in Manhattan, Maxwell has said that if her conviction is not overturned then she should get a new trial or be re-sentenced.
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In a Tuesday night filing with the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan, Maxwell said that if her conviction and the underlying indictment were not thrown out, she deserved a new trial or a re-sentencing.
“The government prosecuted Ms Maxwell as a proxy for Jeffrey Epstein” to satisfy “public outrage” over the case and worked with his accusers “to develop new allegations out of faded, distorted, and motivated memories”, Maxwell lawyer Arthur Aidala said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
Maxwell, 61, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after a Manhattan jury convicted her in December 2021 on five charges for recruiting and grooming four girls for abuse by Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
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The daughter of deceased British media mogul Robert Maxwell is imprisoned in Tallahassee, Florida, and could be freed in July 2037 with credit for good behavior and two years she previously spent in jail.
Earlier in the week, her lawyer Arthur Aidala said prosecutors had targeted Maxwell as a “proxy” for Jeffrey Epstein and to satisfy “public outrage” over the case.
He also said prosecutors had worked with Epstein’s accusers to “develop new allegations out of faded, distorted and motivated memories”.
In her appeal Maxwell, 61, has claimed she was protected by a 2007 non-prosecution agreement made between federal prosecutors in southern Florida and Epstein regarding alleged abuse at his Palm Beach mansion.
She also claimed that she was charged long after the expiration of a five-year statute of limitations, and that a juror who failed to disclose before the trial that he had been sexually abused as a child had used his experience to sway other jurors.
Undated handout screengrab issued by TalkTV from their interview with disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, from prison in the US
Ghislaine Maxwell says Jeffrey Epstein’s victims should take ‘upset out’ on authorities in new prison interview
Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, pictured in a photo believed to have been taken in 2001. Pic: Rex/Shutterstock
Ghislaine Maxwell repeats claims Prince Andrew photo with Virginia Giuffre is ‘fake’ in prison interview
. The British socialite is accused of preying on vulnerable young girls and luring them to massage rooms to be molested by Epstein between 1994 and 2004. Issue date: Wednesday December 8, 2021.
Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida prison after being convicted on five counts of recruiting and grooming four girls for abuse by Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in 2019 at the age of 66, one month after being charged with sex trafficking.
Hundreds of women claimed to be victims of Epstein’s abuse, and famous people, most notably Britain’s Prince Andrew, who were friendly with him, have seen their reputations tarred or destroyed.
Many arguments in Maxwell’s are similar to those she made unsuccessfully before, during and after the trial. She has claimed that Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in southern Florida, arising from alleged abuse at his Palm Beach mansion, also immunized her.
Epstein, in exchange for immunity, pleaded guilty the next year to a Florida state prostitution charge and served 13 months in jail. That arrangement is now widely considered too lenient.
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