A US court is now upholding Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction after co-conspirators failed to be granted immunity.
A U.S. court has upheld the conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite linked to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, on sex trafficking charges involving the abuse of underage girls.
The ruling came from a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York on Tuesday.
Maxwell’s legal team had argued that her convictions were invalid due to a prior agreement Epstein made with federal prosecutors 15 years ago, which they claimed granted immunity to his co-conspirators.
They also asserted that some charges were filed after the statute of limitations had expired and pointed to alleged judicial errors during her trial.
However, the court dismissed all these claims.
Judge Jose Cabranes, writing for the panel, stated, “Identifying no errors in the District Court’s conduct of this complex case, we affirm the District Court’s … judgment of conviction.”
Maxwell, 62, was found guilty in December 2021 for facilitating the abuse of young girls between 1994 and 2004 and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022.
Epstein, who committed suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial, sexually abused minors over a decade, exploiting vulnerable girls as young as 14.
Prosecutors described Maxwell as his longtime companion who played a critical role in enabling his abusive actions.
The case garnered significant attention due to the high-profile connections of both Epstein and Maxwell, who was the daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell.
Names like Bill Clinton and Donald Trump surfaced during the trial, illustrating how Epstein and Maxwell used their connections to manipulate and attract their victims.
The trial featured testimony from a small number of Epstein’s accusers, with four women recounting their experiences of abuse in the 1990s and early 2000s at various locations owned by Epstein.
The appeals court clarified that the non-prosecution agreement (NPA) Epstein reached in 2007 applied only to the Southern District of Florida and did not extend to prosecutors in New York.
The ruling emphasized that the NPA did not bind multiple jurisdictions.
Furthermore, the court rejected claims that some charges were filed too late, citing legislation passed by Congress in 2003 that eliminated the statute of limitations for crimes involving the sexual or physical abuse of minors.
Maxwell is currently serving her sentence at a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida.
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