Ghislaine Maxwell urges Supreme Court to hear appeal, says DOJ wants to distract

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Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned associate of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear an appeal of her sex-trafficking conviction and accused the Trump administration of making inaccurate, distracting claims in court papers.

Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, has said she was improperly prosecuted by federal officials. She contends her case should not have proceeded, saying a plea agreement Epstein signed in 2008 to resolve allegations that he molested dozens of girls prohibited charges against potential co-conspirators.

The Justice Department recently said the widely criticized Epstein plea agreement, which was signed in South Florida, governed potential prosecutions only in that specific district and did not extend to New York, where Maxwell was indicted.

In a court filing Monday, Maxwell’s attorneys criticized the Trump administration’s response to Maxwell’s petition, saying federal officials were making meritless arguments to sidestep “the plain meaning” of the Epstein agreement.

“The government’s argument, across the board, is essentially an appeal to what it wishes the agreement had said, rather than what it actually says,” they wrote. Her attorneys also said the administration was seeking “to distract by reciting a lurid and irrelevant account of Jeffrey Epstein’s misconduct.”

While the appeal is not new, Maxwell’s latest arguments come at a notable time, after a top Justice Department official traveled to Florida last week to meet with her amid increased scrutiny on the Epstein case.

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The Trump administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, has faced immense criticism in recent weeks over its decision not to release more details and files from the investigation into Epstein, who was indicted on federal sex-trafficking charges in 2019. Epstein died that same year in jail in what was ruled a suicide.

Facing continuing blowback, Todd Blanche, the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, interviewed Maxwell in Tallahassee, where she is serving her 20-year sentence. Blanche, who was a criminal defense attorney for President Donald Trump before becoming deputy attorney general, spent time over two days speaking with her.

Days before Blanche’s visit, the Justice Department had urged the Supreme Court not to hear Maxwell’s appeal and leave her conviction intact.

The agency said in a filing on July 14 that Maxwell was wrong in arguing Epstein’s 2008 agreement prohibited her prosecution. The filing included that under Justice Department policy at the time of the agreement, the U.S. attorney’s office in South Florida did not have authority to “bind other districts” in the deal.

The Justice Department on Monday declined to comment on Maxwell’s latest filing.

David Oscar Markus, her attorney, said Monday that the federal government “made a deal, and it must honor it.” He said Maxwell had been made a “scapegoat” and appealed to Trump himself.

“President Trump built his legacy in part on the power of a deal – and surely he would agree that when the United States gives its word, it must stand by it,” he said in a statement.

Trump has not ruled out granting clemency to Maxwell. Markus said last week that Maxwell did not make any deals before speaking with Blanche but “would welcome any relief” in her case. Speaking to reporters Monday, Trump said no one had talked to him about pardoning Maxwell.

“Nobody’s approached me with it,” he said. “Nobody’s asked me about it. … But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”

Also Monday, two Democratic senators – Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island – demanded recordings and transcripts from Blanche’s interview with Maxwell.

In a letter addressed to Blanche, they called the meeting “another tactic to distract from DOJ’s failure to fulfill Attorney General Bondi’s commitment that the American people would see the ‘full Epstein files.'”

They also asked Blanche to publicly promise not to offer clemency to Maxwell in exchange for any cooperation she provides.

The Justice Department has rebuffed similar requests for information from Durbin’s office on other issues.