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NEW YORK, March 1 (AP) – A federal appeals court should overturn Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction or give her a new trial on charges she joined and contributed to Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of dozens of teens and young women over a decade , her attorney argued in court filings Tuesday.
The lawyer’s arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit largely repeated her unsuccessful claims against a trial judge who jailed her for 20 years.
The 61-year-old British socialite argued through her lawyers that the convictions violated an agreement Epstein made with federal prosecutors 15 years ago, that they violated the statute of limitations and should be thrown out because jurors did not reveal he was Victim of child sexual abuse.
She also cited judicial error and a miscarriage of justice within the limits of federal sentencing guidelines as reasons for denying conviction and sentencing.
Maxwell is serving his sentence at a high-security federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, where yoga, Pilates and movies are offered.
In December 2021, she was found guilty of luring teenage girls to be sexually assaulted by Epstein, an American financier with hundreds of millions of dollars and a penchant for daily massages that he used to convince vulnerable and financially strapped girls Sex dollars over hundreds of years.
Her lawyers have previously argued that after Epstein committed suicide in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in a federal prison cell, Maxwell became a scapegoat for prosecutors desperate for someone to be held accountable, without success.
Her trial included testimony from women who were victims as children, as well as the pilots of the celebrities who flew on Epstein’s private jet — Britain’s Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump.
Evidence suggests that Epstein transferred more than $30 million to his ex-girlfriend, Maxwell, during and after the years of their closest relationship, from 1994 to 2004.
Maxwell’s attorney, who was once the privileged daughter of a shipping tycoon, said in court documents that prosecutors should never have brought charges against her because Epstein struck a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida in September 2007 , protecting not only himself from prosecution, but “any potential co-conspirators.”
They also argued that the laws used to convict her ceased to apply once her accusers turned 25 (as they were at the time of trial).
The lawyers reiterated their claim that a juror’s disclosure to reporters after the verdict that he did not disclose that he was a victim of child sexual abuse, even if he was asked to do so, was grounds for overturning the verdict. They say the trial judge mishandled the dispute.
They wrote that Maxwell’s “horrendous confinement conditions” at the Brooklyn federal prison ahead of her trial had left her “disoriented and debilitated, unable to effectively defend herself, let alone testify in court.”
They also criticized the judge for allowing three of the four women who testified about their sexual abuse to use pseudonyms, even though one agreed to be interviewed by the Daily Mail after the verdict and another made a public statement before testifying. statement. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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