Judge Slams the Gavel on Maxwell's Freedom Bid Ghislaine Maxwell's last-ditch effort to overturn her sex trafficking conviction hit a wall Tuesday, when a federal judge rejected her habeas petition in blunt terms.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer, ruling in the Southern District of New York, found Maxwell's claims were based on "speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods." He called her petition "demonstrably meritless" and, according to one outlet's characterization of the ruling, said nearly all of her claims were frivolous, adding that she had presented nothing capable of upending her trial's outcome. CNBC + 2
Maxwell had argued in her petition, filed last December, that exculpatory information was withheld and false testimony was presented to the jury — amounting, in her words, to a "complete miscarriage of justice." The judge wasn't moved: most of her claims were procedurally barred, either already raised on direct appeal or ones she'd chosen not to raise at the time. CNBCMS NOW
He also brushed aside her argument that newly released Epstein-related files supported her innocence — instead, he said those documents actually reinforce the evidence presented at her trial. Newsweek
Maxwell, convicted in December 2021 on multiple felony counts tied to her conspiracy with Jeffrey Epstein to abuse underage girls, had already lost appeals at both the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court. She's now serving her 20-year sentence at a federal prison camp in Texas, having been moved there after a July 2025 interview with the Justice Department's then-second-in-command. MS NOWCNBC
With habeas denied, her remaining paths are narrow — largely limited to a possible presidential pardon or developments from ongoing congressional inquiries into the Epstein files. Newsweek