Ghislaine Maxwell APPEALS sex-trafficking conviction in US after luring girls for Jeffrey Epstein

Disgraced Ghislaine Maxwell has appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn her sex-trafficking conviction, arguing she was covered by a non-prosecution agreement. The British socialite, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence, lodged papers today.

The 63-year-old was found guilty in December 2021 of luring young girls to massage rooms for Prince Andrew's paedophile pal to molest between 1994 and 2004. A federal appeals court rejected her argument that Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement, arranged in 2007, barred her prosecution in New York.

She urged the US Supreme Court to reconsider her case.

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In June 2022, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a £587,000 fine at the federal court in the Southern District of New York.

Maxwell's attorneys have asked America’s highest court to review whether her trial violated a prior non-prosecution agreement (NPA).

Her lawyer, Diana Fabi-Samson, previously focussed upon the deal Epstein struck with Florida prosecutors in 2007 after he pleaded guilty to a charge of soliciting a minor for prostitution.

According to her legal team, he brokered a far-reaching NPA that protected her from prosecution and was certified at the US Justice Department's highest levels.

Ms Fabi-Samson argued Maxwell "should not have been prosecuted".

Maxwell's lawyers have previously said that if her conviction is not overturned, then she should be given a new trial or re-sentenced.

During her three-week trial, jurors heard prosecutors describe Maxwell as "dangerous" and were told details of how she helped entice vulnerable teenagers to Epstein's various properties for him to sexually abuse.

Maxwell, the daughter of crooked media tycoon Robert Maxwell, has been incarcerated since July 2020, despite numerous attempts from her defence counsel to have her released on bail ahead of trial.

Since her conviction, she has refused to apologise to her victims and said they should blame US authorities for "allowing Epstein to die" in an interview broadcast on TalkTV in January 2023.

She has continued to protest her innocence since the conviction. She is serving her sentence in a low-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida.

Maxwell isn't eligible for release until July 2037 if her appeal fails. However, she could apply to serve some of her sentence in the UK.

Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal jail in Manhattan in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. The death was ruled a suicide.