Representing herself, Ghislaine Maxwell pushes to overturn Epstein sex trafficking conviction

MANHATTAN (CN) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite-turned-convicted sex trafficker, on Wednesday filed a self-represented petition to overturn criminal convictions for recruiting and coordinating underage girls for sexual abuse by pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell, whose recent appeal to the Supreme Court was shot down in October, claims in the habeas corpus motion in the Southern District of New York that “substantial new evidence” has emerged from related civil actions, government disclosures, investigative reports, and documents “demonstrating constitutional violations that undermined the fairness of her proceedings.”

“In the light of the full evidentiary record, no reasonable juror would have convicted her,” Maxwell wrote in a 50-page motion, filed separately in seven detached segments. “Accordingly, she seeks vacatur of her conviction, an evidentiary hearing, and such other relief as this court deems appropriate and justice requires.”

Her request for an evidentiary hearing on new evidence may hamper the scheduled release of tranches of grand jury documents from her and Epstein’s respective investigations, expected to be made public later this week.

Maxwell, who turns 64 on Christmas Day, claims the Department of Justice rushed to charge her for sex trafficking in 2020 “for expediency and purely political motives following the death of Jeffrey Epstein in the care, custody and control of the U.S. government."

Maxwell also claims she was denied a fair trial by an impartial jury because at least three jurors in her 2021 trial had concealed their own history of sexual abuse, “and then injected into deliberations information that would not have been inadmissible in court which only served to poison the minds of those jurors who started from neutral.”

One of example of juror misconduct Maxwell cites reprises her posttrial motions about a juror identified in several articles after the trial by his first and middle names, Scotty David, and in court filings as Juror 50.

All potential jurors in the case had been asked to fill out a screening form that asked: “Have you or a friend or family member ever been the victim of sexual harassment, sexual abuse, or sexual assault? (This includes actual or attempted sexual assault or other unwanted sexual advance, including by a stranger, acquaintance, supervisor, teacher, or family member.)”

Scotty David checked “No.”

He said in the interviews he flew through the questionnaire and didn’t remember being asked that question, which was No. 48 on the form.

Maxwell contended Scotty David’s presence on the jury violated her Sixth Amendment right to an impartial jury.

Then-U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan, who presided over Maxwell’s criminal trial, summoned Juror 50 to testify at a posttrial evidentiary hearing, and later ruled that Scotty David’s omissions would not result in a retrial for Maxwell.

Nathan, a Barack Obama appointee now sitting on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, acknowledged that the juror’s hurried handling of the questionnaire led to some mistakes, but the judge wrote in her opinion that he was not biased and she remained “confident that the failure to disclose was not deliberate.”

In her habeas petition, Maxwell says Nathan had “declined to review the material and critically,” and that new reporting on several podcasts contradict the court’s findings and establish actual bias.

“Because Juror #50’s misrepresentations establish both intentional concealment and actual bias, and at least two additional jurors concealed their sexual abuse from the court in voir dire, the petitioner’s conviction rests on an unconstitutional jury of 9,” she wrote. “Under McDonough and Torres, the court must vacate the judgment or at the very least grant an evidentiary hearing.”

Maxwell was arrested in July 2020, a year to the day after Epstein’s 2019 arrest.

She also claims in her motion to vacate that government witnesses at trial were not clear on timelines of events or dates.

She pleaded not guilty to facilitating and participating in Epstein’s abuse of teenage girls during a 10-year period from around 1994 to 2004. Prosecutors named Maxwell as a direct participant in and facilitator of an international sex ring wherein teenage girls were induced to give Epstein “massages” that turned into recurring and escalating sexual episodes, including masturbation, penetrative sex and “orgies” with other adults, sometimes including Maxwell as a participant.

Witness testimony at Maxwell’s trial in 2021 placed several high-profile, wealthy men — including King Charles III’s brother Andrew and Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz — at Epstein’s private island and other properties where victims say they were forced into sex.

Former President Bill Clinton and then-former President Donald Trump were both named at Maxwell’s trial as notable repeat passengers on Epstein’s private jet.

Maxwell was convicted by a New York City jury in December 2021 on five of six criminal counts, and later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer and current deputy attorney general, interviewed Maxwell in a closed-door meeting in July. Following the interview, Maxwell was moved from a Florida prison to a low-security facility in Texas, in violation of Bureau of Prisons rules on housing sex traffickers.

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