Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell launches Hail Mary bid to wipe away her conviction

By Tierney Sneed, CNN

(CNN) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, is making another effort at overturning her conviction for child sex trafficking and other crimes, with new court filings Wednesday claiming evidence has emerged showing that she did not receive a fair trial.

Maxwell’s latest maneuver faces extremely long odds and comes after her previous bids to challenge her conviction were rejected by courts, including the Supreme Court.

Having run out of the typical avenues for appeal, Maxwell is now using an unusual legal mechanism known as a habeas petition, which seeks extraordinary relief from a court. Her submissions with the federal court in Manhattan were also filed pro se, meaning that they were filed by Maxwell herself, rather than by her attorneys.

She argued that there were a number of flaws in her prosecutions that have not been addressed by courts, pointing to evidence she claims has newly surfaced with the various investigations, legal cases and media reports surrounding the Epstein saga.

She also alleged that lawyers for Epstein’s victims “conspired and colluded” with government investigators, while also claiming the some jurors were biased.

“The newly discovered evidence referenced above is such that when taken as a whole it constitutes a miscarriage of justice in that, the Petitioner did not receive a fair trial by independent jurors coming to Court with an open mind,” she wrote.

Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking minors in 2021. She was held at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, but moved to a less restrictive minimum-security prison in Bryan, Texas, following a two-day interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche this summer. The transfer ignited controversy over whether she was receiving preferential treatment to help the Trump administration.

The court filings were first reported by ABC News.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the new petition. It faces a Friday deadline to release a collection of documents related to its Epstein investigations.

CNN’s Casey Gannon contributed to this report.

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