Supreme Court rejects appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, imprisoned former
girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein
[October 07, 2025]
By MARK SHERMAN
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from
Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein.
On the first day of their new term, the justices declined to take up a
case that would have drawn renewed attention to the sordid sexual-abuse
saga after President Donald Trump’s administration sought to tamp down
criticism over its refusal to publicly release more investigative files
from Epstein’s case.
Lawyers for Maxwell, a British socialite, argued that she never should
have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be
sexually abused by Epstein, a New York financier. She is serving a
20-year prison term, though she was moved from a low-security federal
prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she
was interviewed in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.
As is their custom, the justices did not explain why they turned away
the appeal.
Trump’s Republican administration had urged the high court to stay out
of the case.
Maxwell's lawyers contended that a non-prosecution agreement reached in
2007 by federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein’s lawyers also
protected his “potential co-conspirators” from federal charges anywhere
in the country.
Maxwell was prosecuted in Manhattan, and the federal appeals court there
ruled that the prosecution was proper. A jury found her guilty of sex
trafficking a teenage girl, among other charges.
Maxwell’s trial featured accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as
young as 14 told by four women who described being abused as teens in
the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein’s homes.
Neither Maxwell’s lawyers nor the federal Bureau of Prisons has
explained the reason for her transfer, but one of her lawyers, David
Oscar Markus, has said she is “innocent and never should have been
tried, much less convicted.” Markus also was the lead lawyer on her
Supreme Court case.
Maxwell was interviewed by Blanche at a Florida courthouse. She was
given limited immunity, allowing her to speak freely without fear of
prosecution for anything she said except for in the event of a false
statement. She repeatedly denied witnessing any sexually inappropriate
interactions involving Trump, according to records released in August
meant to distance the president from the disgraced financer.
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Audrey Strauss, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern
District of New York, speaks during a news conference to announce
charges against Ghislaine Maxwell for her alleged role in the sexual
exploitation and abuse of multiple minor girls by Jeffrey Epstein,
July 2, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges and was
accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls. A month later,
he was found dead in a New York jail cell in what investigators
described as a suicide.
The Epstein case had consumed Trump’s administration following an
announcement from the FBI and the Justice Department in July that
Epstein had killed himself despite conspiracy theories to the
contrary, that a “client list” that Attorney General Pam Bondi had
intimated was on her desk did not actually exist, and that no
additional documents from the high-profile investigation were
suitable to be released.
The announcement produced outrage from conspiracy theorists and
Trump supporters who had been hoping to see proof of a government
coverup. That expectation was driven in part by comments from
officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan
Bongino, who on podcasts before taking their current positions had
repeatedly promoted the idea that damaging details about prominent
people were being withheld.
Patel, for instance, said in at least one podcast interview before
becoming FBI director that Epstein’s “black book” was under the
“direct control of the director of the FBI.”
But the Justice Department said its review of evidence in the
government’s possession determined that no “further disclosure would
be appropriate or warranted.” The department noted that much of the
material was placed under seal by a court to protect victims and
“only a fraction” of it “would have been aired publicly had Epstein
gone to trial.”
Faced with fury from his base, Trump sought to quickly turn the
page, shutting down questioning of Bondi about Epstein at a White
House Cabinet meeting and deriding as “weaklings” supporters he said
were falling for the “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”
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