The United States Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, to have her sex trafficking conviction overturned.
The top court turned down Maxwell’s bid on Monday, keeping in place a decision by a lower court to allow her conviction to stand. The decision appears to leave a pardon or clemency from US President Donald Trump as the former socialite’s only potential avenue for release.
The 63-year-old Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Her lawyers have argued that Maxwell is covered by a 2007 plea deal Epstein made with federal prosecutors and that her conviction should therefore be nullified.
“We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case,” David Oscar Markus, a lawyer for Maxwell, said.
“But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”
As is customary, the Supreme Court declined to explain its decision to reject the appeal.
Speculation and conspiracy theories have long swirled around Epstein and Maxwell and the elite circles they operated in. But renewed interest has largely focused on Trump’s past friendship with Epstein, who died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019.
Calls for more transparency have come both from Trump’s base and from Democrats, who have increasingly seized on the issue as a political cudgel.
In July, Deputy US Attorney General Todd Blanche, a former personal lawyer to Trump, met with Maxwell as Trump sought to quell that criticism.
During the meeting, Maxwell told Blanche that she was not aware of any so-called “client list”, referring to a long-sought list of individuals who may have engaged in sexual abuses alongside Epstein, according to a transcript. She added she had never seen Trump behave inappropriately.
A week after the interview, Maxwell was moved from a low-security prison facility in Florida to a less-restrictive prison camp in Texas.
Prior to the interview, the Justice Department said in July that after reviewing more than 300 gigabytes of data that there was “no incriminating client list” nor was there any evidence that Epstein may have blackmailed prominent people.
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