Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, plans to file a court petition seeking her release, according to a letter filed on Wednesday in Manhattan federal court.
The letter, submitted by her lawyer, offers no details about what grounds Ms. Maxwell will cite in her filing, known as a habeas petition. But the letter indicated that she would file the petition shortly, and that it would be done pro se, which means without a lawyer representing her.
Ms. Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, declined to comment on Wednesday when asked about his filing.
Ms. Maxwell has already been moved from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security camp in Texas. The move occurred about a week after she was interviewed over two days about the Epstein case by Todd Blanche, the Justice Department’s second-in-command and one of President Trump’s former lawyers.
Mr. Blanche met with Ms. Maxwell amid a firestorm of criticism from Trump supporters who called for the administration to release all federal files related to Mr. Epstein.
Several top aides to Mr. Trump led the president’s followers to believe that secrets lurked in the files about men implicated in Mr. Epstein’s sex crimes. Many were furious after the Justice Department released a letter saying there would be no further disclosures about the case.
The letter came about two months after top officials at the Justice Department informed Mr. Trump that he himself was mentioned in the files. A person’s name appearing in the documents is not necessarily an indication of wrongdoing.
This is developing story. Check back for updates.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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