Maxwell appeal ‘falls far short’ of justifying quashing verdict – US Government

The disgraced British socialite was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June last year.

This picture of Ghislaine Maxwell with Jeffrey Epstein was shown to the court during her sex trafficking trial (US Department of Justice/PA) (PA Media)

Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell’s arguments for overturning her sex trafficking conviction “fall far short” of justifying quashing the jury’s verdict, US Government lawyers have said.

The 61-year-old was found guilty in December 2021 of luring young girls to massage rooms for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest between 1994 and 2004.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the Southern District of New York in June last year.

Maxwell indicated her desire to appeal shortly after her conviction, with her lawyers claiming victims had “faded, distorted and motivated memories”.

Her attorneys also claimed she did not have a fair trial after it emerged one of the jurors, Scotty David, also known as Juror 50, had failed to disclose he had been sexually abused in the jury questionnaire.

But US Government lawyers have urged the Second Circuit Appeals Court to uphold Maxwell’s conviction.

In response to the arguments about Mr David, the US Government’s attorneys said: “Judge Nathan conducted a thorough inquiry and determined that Juror 50’s inadvertent errors on the jury questionnaire did not undermine Maxwell’s right to a fair trial.

“Maxwell does not meaningfully engage with Judge Nathan’s careful opinion, instead suggesting that Juror 50’s testimony at the hearing was ‘patently absurd’.”

The US Government attorneys said Maxwell’s arguments “fall far short of establishing Judge Nathan abused her discretion” in her decision not to overturn the jury’s verdict.

The former socialite also argued the US government breached a “non-prosecution agreement” by bringing the charges against her – claiming the agreement “immunised Maxwell for these offences”.

But the US prosecutors said Maxwell has “no right to invoke the protections” of a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) because she was not a signatory or a third party to the agreement.

In her appeal submissions, the disgraced socialite said the court had refused to correct the jury’s “misunderstanding” of elements of the charges – meaning she was “convicted of crimes with which she was not charged”.

But the US Government said Judge Nathan found that the “original jury instructions and the Government’s summation captured the core of criminality charged in the indictment”.

Maxwell also urged the appeal court to resentence if she was not granted a new trial.

But the government attorneys said her sentence was not unfair and that her arguments to the contrary were “so cursory and undeveloped” that they should be dismissed.

Jurors heard prosecutors describe Maxwell as “dangerous” during her three-week trial, and were told details of how she helped entice vulnerable teenagers to Epstein’s various properties for him to sexually abuse.

Her lawyers have until July 27 to respond the US Government’s submissions.

Maxwell has been imprisoned since July 2020, despite numerous attempts from her defence counsel to have her released on bail.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

The death was ruled a suicide.