June 25, 2026
Ghislaine Maxwell argued in a new court filing that Jeffrey Epstein documents released this year contained evidence her rights were violated before she was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for helping the late financier sexually abuse teenage girls.
Maxwell, 64, has been challenging her December 2021 conviction and sentence in Manhattan federal court, and is seeking a writ of habeas corpus declaring her punishment unlawful. Prosecutors said her latest claims were baseless or filed too late.
In her amended petition made public on Wednesday, Maxwell said many documents disclosed through the Epstein Files Transparency Act show that her due process rights were violated because lawyers representing Epstein's accusers served as "De Facto Prosecutors and agents of the government."
The former British socialite and Epstein girlfriend cited among other things a letter from a former federal prosecutor who said, "I did what I could" to help the women's lawyers, in an alleged attempt to set aside Epstein's controversial 2007 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida.
