Amid an explosive fight on Capitol Hill over whether the Trump administration should release records related to Jeffrey Epstein, the family of the disgraced financier’s convicted right-hand woman is saying she “did not receive a fair trial.”
Maxwell, 63, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022 for recruiting and grooming teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, several years after he died in jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. She is currently being held in federal prison in Florida and has filed a petition with the Supreme Court to vacate her 2021 conviction.
The family’s statement in defense of Maxwell also comes amid a recent politically charged fight over the release of documents in Epstein's case.
Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, said in the statement that he would be “surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to let the government break a deal,” referring to a 2007 agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida. “He’s the ultimate dealmaker — and I’m sure he’d agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it,” Markus added. “With all the talk about who’s being prosecuted and who isn’t, it’s especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the US government made and broke.”
The family, who said they “profoundly concur” with Markus' statement, added that Maxwell's legal team might file a writ of habeas corpus in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of New York, which — if granted — would allow Maxwell to appear before a judge to determine if their detention is lawful.
Maxwell, who pleaded not guilty to all charges, petitioned the Supreme Court in April to scrap her conviction. Her legal team argued that Epstein's non-prosecution and plea agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida in 2008 protected Maxwell from future prosecution.
Lower courts have rejected Maxwell's attorneys' arguments, and on Monday, the Department of Justice urged the Supreme Court to follow suit. The DOJ argued that the non-prosecution agreement in Florida does not protect Maxwell or other co-conspirators from being prosecuted in other jurisdictions around the country. Maxwell was prosecuted on different charges by federal officials in Manhattan.
The case against Epstein ended after he was found dead in a New York City jail cell in 2019. A medical examiner’s office ruled Epstein’s death a suicide.
But for years, the nature of Epstein's death, the billionaire's high-profile contacts, and the graphic details of his alleged crimes have fueled conspiracy theories and demands that the government release all it knows about the case. President Trump himself helped fuel these theories in the past, saying during his most recent presidential campaign that he would have “no problem” looking into an Epstein client list.
The Department of Justice, however, said last week it would not release any additional files related to the case against Epstein, referred to as the “Epstein files.”
In a two-page memo, Attorney General Pam Bondi disputed the existence of a “client list” of powerful individuals who participated in Epstein's crimes. The memo said that there was no “credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals.”
The development prompted outrage among some Republican lawmakers and prominent right-wing media figures, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in an interview with conservative commentator Benny Johnson on Tuesday that Bondi should come forward and explain why she declined to do so. Republicans have also been calling for Maxwell to appear and testify before Congress, which the speaker suggested he was in favor of.
After years of promising to release the files, President Donald Trump has recently pushed back against Republican criticism and sought to downplay the significance of the documents. On Wednesday, Trump called the fanfare around the documents a “scam” and “bulls***.” (The president previously knew Epstein, but later had a falling out with the disgraced financier. No evidence has surfaced to suggest Trump was involved in Epstein’s criminal activity.)
This ongoing controversy highlights the deep divisions within political circles regarding the handling of sensitive legal documents and the pursuit of justice. According to NBC News, the family of Ghislaine Maxwell continues to pursue legal avenues to challenge her conviction, while the debate over the release of Epstein-related files intensifies on Capitol Hill.
