Ghislaine Maxwell, a shamed sex trafficker and ex-British socialite, asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to overturn her conviction and sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls.
US media reported that Maxwell’s lawyers argued that the 61-year-old didn’t receive a fair trial and was apparently used as a scapegoat because Epstein evaded justice, revealed a filing with the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan.
As quoted by ABC News, defence attorney Arthur Aidala said in a statement: “The government prosecuted Ms Maxwell as a proxy for Jeffrey Epstein. It did so to satisfy public outrage over an unpopular non-prosecution agreement and the death of the person responsible for the crimes.”
Maxwell is currently facing a jail term in a Florida penitentiary. She was convicted and received a 20-year sentence for helping late financier Epstein sexually abuse girls. While Epstein killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting his trial.
Maxwell’s lawyers also argued that prosecutors had waited too long to charge her and had violated the statute of limitations. As quoted by ABC and Fox News, the filing said: “In its zeal to pin the blame for its own incompetence and for Epstein’s crimes on Maxwell, the government breached its promise not to prosecute Maxwell, charged her with time-barred offenses, resurrected and recast decades-old allegations for conduct previously ascribed to Epstein and other named assistants, and joined forces with complainants’ civil attorneys, whose interests were financial, to develop new allegations that would support charges against Maxwell.”
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