An appeals court has upheld the conviction of Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
62-year-old Maxwell has been serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted over her role in Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
She was found guilty on five charges for having recruited and groomed four underage girls for Epstein and his powerful associates to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
However, despite Maxwell’s convictions, prosecutors refuse to reveal who Epstein and Maxwell were trafficking the victims to as the notorious “client list” remains sealed.
On Tuesday, the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Maxwell’s case and upheld her conviction.
She was described as “dangerous” during her main trial.
Jurors were told details of how she helped entice vulnerable teenagers to Epstein’s various properties.
Judge Alison Nathan said at sentencing that Maxwell was “central” to Epstein’s heinous crimes, not a “proxy.”
“Ms Maxwell worked with Epstein to select young victims who were vulnerable and played a pivotal role in facilitating sexual abuse,” the judge said.
Maxwell’s failed appeal comes after vowed to expose “the truth” about Epstein.
Earlier this year, prison sources reportedly told the Daily Mail that Maxwell told her fellow inmates to ignore reports on the case.
Instead, she is promising to reveal “the truth” in a memoir she is writing.
A source claimed that Maxwell revealed, “the documents in the news are all false or misinformation.”
“The truth will only come out when her book does,” the source added.
“She’s bragging about how great it will be but it sounds like the same old lies she has told a thousand times,” the insider said.
“She really thinks she hasn’t done anything wrong and that her charges will be dropped when people read it.”
Maxwell was “focused and motivated” for her appeal.
Despite numerous attempts from her defense counsel to have her released on bail, Maxwell has been incarcerated since July 2020.
Maxwell’s appeal focused on a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in southern Florida.
She argues that the deal barred her from being prosecuted in Manhattan 13 years later.
Her lawyer argued that references in Epstein’s agreement to the “United States” signaled the government’s intent to bar prosecutions nationwide of “potential co-conspirators” including four named in the agreement.
Maxwell, however, was not among those named.
A prosecutor countered that the mention of the United States was a throwaway reference.
Epstein’s agreement was intended to bind only prosecutors in southern Florida, they added.
In addition, Maxwell argued in her appeal that prosecutors scapegoated her because Epstein was dead and the public demanded that someone else be held accountable.
She also said her trial was tainted because one juror did not disclose that he had been sexually abused as a child.
In a self-serving prison interview last year, she denied knowledge of the dead financier’s crimes.
Instead, Maxwell is insisting that she regretted ever meeting Epstein and claims she had no idea he was “capable of evil.”
But hundreds of documents made public in January, relating to a long-settled defamation case filed against Maxwell by Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre, made a mockery of her claims of innocence.
Epstein was found dead at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
His death came five weeks after being arrested and charged with child sex trafficking.
Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state prosecution charge and served 13 months in jail, an arrangement now widely considered too lenient.
His victims have since recouped hundreds of millions of dollars from his estate and from banks accused of handling transactions that financed his sexual misconduct.
The scandal has stained or destroyed the reputations of former friends including Britain’s Prince Andrew and onetime Barclays CEO Jes Staley.
Maxwell, who was once Epstein’s girlfriend, has been serving her sentence in a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.
She is eligible for release in July 2037.
