Appeals court upholds conviction of Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell for sex crimes

A federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday upheld the sex crime conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidante of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In March, Ghislaine asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and procuring the underage girls sexually abused by Epstein. She argued that she was immune from charges brought against her by a plea agreement that federal prosecutors in Florida reached with Epstein in 2007.

On Tuesday, the appeals court ruled that Maxwell was not covered by Epstein's non-prosecution agreement and that the crimes he was accused of were statute-barred.

Maxwell's lawyers had argued that she had been appointed as Epstein's “deputy” to “appease public outrage” over his behavior. Epstein had committed suicide while in custody.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 after prosecutors said she worked with Epstein from 1994 to 2004 to identify girls, groom them and then transport them to Epstein's properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico and elsewhere. The girls – some as young as 14 – were then sexually abused, often under the guise of a “massage,” prosecutors said.

Maxwell is currently in a low-security prison in Tallahassee and could be released in 2037.