A US judge ruled that Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid to overturn her 20-year prison sentence was meritless and that the newly released Epstein files did not exonerate her.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are seen in this image released by the Department of Justice in Washington, DC, US, on Dec 19, 2025 (Photo: REUTERS/US Justice Department)
26 Aug 2026 12:13AM
NEW YORK: A US judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to throw out her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.In a decision made public on Tuesday (Aug 25), US District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan said Maxwell's claims were all meritless, and all or almost all were frivolous.He said most were based on arguments Maxwell previously lost or failed to make in challenging her December 2021 conviction, while much of the supposedly "new" evidence disclosed this year through the Epstein Files Transparency Act was irrelevant."On the contrary, to the extent it is relevant, far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges," Engelmayer wrote in a 67-page decision.
Engelmayer also called Maxwell's claim that prosecutors illegally withheld some evidence "conclusory, cynical, and wrong."Maxwell represented herself. Engelmayer said an appeal "would not be taken in good faith," and the court would not pay her filing fees if she declared herself unable to afford it.Jurors convicted Maxwell on five charges for recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004, in a trial before a different judge.
