(AFP) – The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal by Ghislaine Maxwell, the accomplice of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, of her sex trafficking conviction. The top court rejected Maxwell’s appeal without comment.
Maxwell, 63, was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison for recruiting underage girls for Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. The authorities ruled the wealthy financier’s death a suicide, but it has fueled countless conspiracy theories among President Donald Trump’s voter base. Many of Trump’s supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have held as an article of faith that “deep state” elites were protecting Epstein associates in the Democratic Party and Hollywood.
Trump, a one-time close friend of Epstein, has sought to dampen the continuing political furor over the Epstein case, calling it a “Democrat hoax.” Maxwell had appealed her sex trafficking conviction in New York on the grounds that she should have been protected from prosecution by an agreement secured by Epstein in a 2007 case.
Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Markus, said he was “deeply disappointed” that the Supreme Court had declined to hear the case. “But this fight isn’t over,” Markus said in a statement. “Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done.”
The Supreme Court’s rejection of Maxwell’s appeal appears to leave a pardon or clemency from Trump as the former British socialite’s only potential avenue for release. Trump was asked by reporters on Monday if he would consider a pardon for Maxwell. “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider it. I don’t know anything about it,” he said, adding that he would have to speak to the Department of Justice.
Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate criminally convicted in connection with his activities, was recently interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer. Following that interview, Maxwell was moved from a prison in Florida to a minimum security facility in Texas.
© 2024 AFP
