New York, New York - Child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell argued in a new court filing that the Department of Justice's release of the Epstein files contained documents that undermine her conviction.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for collaborating with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in obtaining, trafficking, and assisting in the sexual abuse of underage girls.
Now, she is challenging her conviction in a habeas corpus filing to a Manhattan federal court, arguing that documents held within the Epstein files prove her due process rights were violated.
She claims the files, which were made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act with heavy – and oft-criticized – redactions, prove the attorneys representing Epstein's victims acted as "de facto prosecutors and agents of the government."
"I did what I could," one prosecutor wrote in a letter released amid the Epstein files, referencing an attempt to help the victims' lawyers set aside the disgraced financier's 2007 non-prosecution agreement.
Maxwell argues that the 2007 agreement shielded her from criminal prosecution. She has tested this assertion in court on multiple occasions, losing each time.
These claims have now been denied by Manhattan Attorney Jay Clayton, who filed for their dismissal on Wednesday.
He said her arguments were submitted late, were speculative, misstated the law, and didn't prove her trial was unfair.
"The defendant – for multiple, independent reasons – utterly fails to carry her burden to overturn her proper conviction and just sentence," Clayton wrote.