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 The 2007 deal allowed Epstein
to plead guilty in a Florida court to soliciting
minors to engage in prostitution and serve just
13 months in county jail.
The once-secret agreement included
nonprosecution protection for unidentified
co-conspirators such as Maxwell, a provision
that U.S. attorneys since have acknowledged in
court was unprecedented.
Maxwell's defense lawyers did not respond to
requests for comment and prosecutors declined to
comment.
But Maxwell's lawyers said in court papers
Friday she intends to argue she cannot be
prosecuted because of the agreement, a defense
Manhattan federal prosecutors on Monday called
"absurd."
The government charged Maxwell with luring and
grooming minors for sexual abuse by Epstein at
his mansions in Florida, New York and New
Mexico, as well as at Maxwell's London
residence, in the 1990s. She is also charged
with perjury from 2016 testimony in a civil
case.
A judge on Tuesday afternoon is expected to
decide whether Maxwell should get bail.
The 2007 plea deal also came up last year when
Epstein was charged with child sex crimes by
Manhattan federal prosecutors, who said the
Florida deal did not protect Epstein in New
York. Before the issue could be resolved in
court, Epstein was found hanged in a Manhattan
jail while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a
suicide.
Several alleged victims of Epstein have been
challenging the plea deal since 2008 arguing it
violated the Crime Victims Rights Act (CVRA) by
concealing the Epstein plea and nonprosecution
agreement until after it was signed.
Had the alleged victims been informed of the
deal, which they argue was their right under the
CVRA, they could have tried to prevent a judge
from approving it.
The plaintiffs are seeking to invalidate the
deal and the provision that protected
co-conspirators, but after Epstein died a
federal judge tossed their case.
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 That ruling was upheld by a
three-judge panel on an appeals court in Atlanta
this year, which ruled 2-1 that the CVRA had not
been triggered because Epstein was never charged
with a federal crime.
The alleged victims have asked the full Atlanta
federal appeals court to revive their case and
determine if the lower court wrongly refused to
invalidate the plea deal, said Paul Cassell, who
represents alleged Epstein victim Courtney Wild
in the CVRA case.
"If the agreement is ripped up, she can't get to
first base," said Cassell, who is also a law
professor at the University of Utah, former
federal prosecutor and former federal judge.
On Monday, prosecutors dismissed Maxwell's plea
deal defense. In a court filing, they said her
crimes were committed before and after the
timeframe of the plea deal, Maxwell was not a
named party to the deal and argued prosecutors
in New York are not bound by their counterparts
in Florida.
Retired Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz,
who helped defend Epstein in 2007, said Maxwell
can counter each of those arguments. "When the
United States government makes a promise, it’s
binding all over the country," he said.
The alleged victims have garnered noteworthy
support for their appeals case, including from
U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and
former Republican senators Orrin Hatch and Jon
Kyl, authors of the 2004 CVRA law.
The trio filed a brief urging the Atlanta
federal appeals court to revisit the Epstein
plea deal and CVRA case. "This miscarriage of
justice," they said of the agreement, "is
precisely what the act prevents."
 (Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and Tom
Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen
Walder and Tom Brown)
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