Federal judge slaps down Ghislaine Maxwell petition for new trial as ‘rambling,’ ‘meritless’

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A federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s latest effort to overturn her conviction, blasting her petition as “lengthy and rambling” and finding her claims “all meritless” and “all or almost all” frivolous.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer denied Maxwell’s post-conviction challenge in an opinion filed Monday in the Southern District of New York and made public Tuesday, writing that the evidence against the convicted Jeffrey Epstein associate at trial was “overwhelming.”

Maxwell, representing herself, had moved to vacate her conviction and 20-year prison sentence, alleging that her constitutional rights were violated at trial and sentencing.

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In this courtroom sketch, Ghislaine Maxwell, left, confers with lead defense attorney Bobbi Sternheim before Judge Alison Nathan takes the bench during Maxwell's sex trafficking trial, Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2021, in New York. A longtime pilot for the late financier Jeffrey Epstein resumed his testimony at Ghislaine Maxwell's sex trafficking trial Tuesday, saying that the British socialite charged with helping the financier find teenage girls to sexually abuse was

Engelmayer said the vast majority of her arguments were procedurally barred because she either raised and lost them on direct appeal or could have raised them earlier but did not.

The judge also shot down Maxwell’s reliance on material released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, finding that the purported new evidence did not support her claims. The supposedly “new” evidence was largely irrelevant to Maxwell ‘s case, the judge said.

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“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.

“The Court accordingly denies Maxwell’s petition,” he concluded.

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Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on five felony counts stemming from her participation with Epstein in the sexual abuse of young girls over the course of a decade.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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