Ghislaine Maxwell asks court to overturn her twenty-year prison sentence

(Patria) - Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has asked a federal court to overturn or modify her twenty-year sentence for human trafficking for sexual exploitation, the BBC reported.

Maxwell claims that "significant new evidence" has emerged from civil lawsuits, investigative reports, and other documents showing that she did not receive a fair trial, according to a court filing in New York.

This is the latest of several appeals by Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, in an attempt to reduce her prison sentence. The move comes as the Department of Justice faces a December 19 deadline to release documents related to their investigations into Epstein.

Maxwell filed the petition pro se, without a lawyer, on Wednesday. Maxwell was convicted for her role in luring underage girls for her former boyfriend, Epstein, for abuse. Epstein died in prison in 2019.

In the new court filing, Maxwell claims that several pieces of new evidence show that "no reasonable juror would have convicted her." In one example she cites, a juror allegedly hid a history of sexual abuse during jury selection, which could have compromised their ability to be impartial during her trial.

Federal judges in New York and Florida recently paved the way for the public release of grand jury materials related to investigations into Maxwell and Epstein so that the Department of Justice could meet a deadline set by Congress in the Epstein Transparency Act, passed last month.

Maxwell was transferred in August from a Florida prison to a new minimum-security facility in Texas, after being interviewed by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about her connections to Epstein.
She has appealed her case multiple times and lost. In October, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would not hear Maxwell's appeal.