Ghislaine Maxwell to ask court to free her from prison
ELLA LEE - 12/03/25
The imprisoned accomplice of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein intends to seek her release, court filings show, throwing a wrench into the Justice Department’s bid to make public scores of records from her case.
Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime Epstein counterpart, wrote in a letter filed Wednesday in federal court that she plans to soon file a court petition challenging her detention, a long-shot bid that, if successful, could result in a new trial.
They said Maxwell does not take a position on the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts, in response to the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act‘s passage, which was signed into law by President Trump last month.
But to do so could imperil a retrial if her challenge, called a habeas petition, prevails.
“Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms. Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed,” wrote David Oscar Markus, Maxwell’s lawyer.
Markus noted in the filing that she will file the petition pro se, which means on her own behalf and without a lawyer. The Hill requested comment from him.
Maxwell is serving 20-year prison sentence after she was found guilty of conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls.
She’s housed in a minimum-security women’s prison located in Bryan, Texas, to which she was transferred from a federal prison in Florida about a week after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former defense attorney, interviewed her about Epstein.
The meetup came amid fury from Trump’s political base, after the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FBI issued a joint memo in July confirming Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and that he did not have a “client list,” two flash points for skeptics who have long claimed the government covered up the truth.
After months of pressure, Trump’s signature on the legislation began a 30-day clock for the DOJ to release the materials it possesses concerning Epstein. Prosecutors have asked federal judges overseeing the cases to release many of the files.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer previously denied DOJ’s bid to release the documents, but the most recent request cites the new law. A similar request was made to the judge who oversaw Epstein’s case.
The Trump administration has also since launched an investigation into Epstein’s past involvement with prominent Democrats and institutions, despite saying in its memo earlier this year that a “systematic review” did not uncover any evidence on which charges against “uncharged third parties” could be based. Trump is also named in the files.
Maxwell appealed to the Supreme Court and Trump administration to intervene in her case, but the justices declined to consider throwing out her 2021 sex-trafficking sentence in October. The president signaled the same month that he would “look into it,” though many have advised against a pardon.
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5632033-ghislaine-maxwell-prison-sentence-challenge/
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/?order_by=desc
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.815.0.pdf