Maxwell loses a major federal route to challenge her conviction, and she will remain serving a 20-year prison term. In a 67-page opinion filed Tuesday, US district judge Paul Engelmayer for the Southern District of New York rejected Maxwell’s petition to vacate the 2021 sex-trafficking verdict, finding she did not make a substantial showing that her constitutional rights were violated in that trial.
Engelmayer dismissed the substance of Maxwell’s assertions about the trial record and juror issues, writing that the claims were “demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods.” The petition had argued that one juror later disclosed he was a victim of sexual abuse and that the defense had been denied access to material evidence. The judge found most of those grounds were procedurally barred, noting the “vast majority” were either raised and lost on direct appeal or could have been raised then but were not.
Maxwell had also tied her bid to a 2007 non-prosecution agreement reached by federal prosecutors in Miami in the Jeffrey Epstein probe, contending that deal shielded her from later charges. Engelmayer reiterated that Maxwell was not named in that agreement. The petition reached the court before the government’s extensive release of Epstein-related records, and the judge concluded that those documents did not produce the kind of newly exculpatory material she claimed, saying the release “incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges.”
The ruling follows earlier setbacks. The Supreme Court declined to hear Maxwell’s challenge to the non-prosecution argument, and she previously refused to answer questions in a virtual appearance before the House oversight and government reform committee, invoking her Fifth Amendment right. Her lawyer, David Markus, had said she would cooperate with lawmakers only if first granted clemency by then-President Trump; Markus also told reporters she needed to remain silent because of the pending federal petition in New York that now has been denied.
Maxwell is serving the sentence at a minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas. The case remains tethered to the broader Epstein saga: prosecutors say Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial in August 2019, during the first presidency of Donald Trump, a former friend of Epstein.
With federal judicial relief denied, the public, and Maxwell’s legal team, are left with fewer options. President Trump previously said he would “take a look at” any clemency petition, and he told reporters, “I wouldn’t consider it or not consider it,” and “I don’t know anything about it.” The denial narrows Maxwell’s courtroom avenues and refocuses attention on political and executive remedies as the next possible step.
