While British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell plowed ahead Monday in appealing her 2021 conviction to the Supreme Court, her attorney also tried a different tack — appealing directly to President Donald Trump.
Trump has acknowledged that he has the power to pardon Maxwell for a series of sex trafficking crimes she committed alongside the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, but he has not revealed whether he is seriously thinking about doing so.
Maxwell’s attorneys have been petitioning the high court to review her case on the basis that the charges should not have been brought. They argue that she was covered under the controversial plea deal Epstein negotiated in 2007, which shielded him from federal prosecution in Florida if he pleaded guilty to state-level sex crimes. It also covered a select few co-conspirators.
David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s attorney, asserted that Trump should understand the importance of honoring a deal, alluding to the president’s 1987 bestselling book.
“President Trump built his legacy in part on the power of a deal — and surely he would agree that when the United States gives its word, it must stand by it,” Markus said in a statement.
