Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has asked a federal court to vacate or amend her 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
Maxwell claims that “substantial new evidence” has emerged from civil cases, investigative reports and other documents demonstrating that she did not receive a fair trial, according to a court filing in New York.
It was the latest of several appeals from Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021, to try to reduce her prison sentence.
The move comes as the justice department faces a 19 December deadline to release files related to their investigations into Epstein.
Maxwell filed the petition pro se – without an attorney – on Wednesday.
The BBC has contacted the Southern District of New York, where Maxwell made the request, for comment.
Maxwell argues that the several new pieces of evidence mean that “no reasonable juror would have convicted her”. In one example she cites, a juror supposedly hid a history of sexual abuse during the jury selection process that could have hurt their ability to be unbiased during her trial.
Federal judges in New York and Florida recently cleared the way for grand jury material related to investigations into Maxwell and Epstein to be publicly released so that the justice department can meet the deadline that Congress set in the Epstein Transparency Act last month.
www.bbc.com
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