根据周三公开的法庭文件，杰弗里·爱泼斯坦的助手吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦尔在联邦法院一份新启封的请愿书中辩称，根据爱泼斯坦文件透明法案公布的文件暴露了涉嫌违反宪法和法律的行为，使她2021年的性贩运定罪“无效、不安全和不牢固”。
马克斯韦尔因帮助和参与爱泼斯坦贩卖未成年女孩而在德克萨斯州的联邦监狱服刑20年。他认为，自11月法律通过以来，司法部披露的数百万份文件中，有一些记录“扩大了她的案件的证据范围”，超出了初审法官和上诉法院的考虑范围。
马克斯韦尔在她的文件中写道:“如果这些文件被放在陪审团面前，或者这些材料被用于交叉询问和弹劾目的，没有一个理智的陪审员会判她有罪。”该文件自4月份提交以来一直被密封。
64岁的马克斯韦尔正在为自己辩护，争取撤销对她的定罪或减刑。她认为，新披露的记录的累积效应表明了证据听证的必要性，并认为“进一步的事实发展是必要的。”
她引用了爱泼斯坦档案中的DOJ文件，她声称这些文件为她的论点提供了新的支持，即政府隐瞒了相关证据，证人做了伪证，以及爱泼斯坦受害者的律师在她的刑事案件中充当了事实上的检察官。
根据5月19日提交的一份文件，纽约的联邦检察官在一份长达近100页的全面反驳中称，她的说法是猜测性的，事实错误，在程序上是禁止的，这份文件也于周三公布。
“被告试图推翻代表陪审团庄严裁决的定罪判决，”美国助理检察官Lara Pomerantz写道，她是政府审判团队中唯一一名仍在纽约南区检察官办公室工作的成员。
“[马克斯韦尔的]长篇论文反复对政府的不当行为提出毫无根据的指控，没有法律、逻辑或记录，”Pomerantz写道，敦促法院迅速驳回马克斯韦尔的申请和她举行证据听证会的请求。
“她的受害者应该得到终结，”Pomerantz写道。“被告引用的所谓新证据...给她没有缓解。”
政府在其文件中承认，在某些情况下，现在公开的文件在Maxwell的审判前并不掌握在她的律师手中，但认为这些事件都不构成违反法律或宪法，也不会影响判决。
马克斯韦尔在本月早些时候提交给政府的一份答复中称，政府对她的请愿书的处理方式试图单独“最小化每一类”证据，而不是将爱泼斯坦的文件和其他审判后的进展作为“更大的证据画面的组成部分”进行评估。
“这里提出的问题不是例行公事。马克斯韦尔在她的回复中写道:“请愿书涉及大量的审判后证据，这些证据是在定罪多年后通过法定的透明程序披露的，而在基本的诉讼程序中并不存在。”“因此，法院的任务不是孤立地评估每一项披露，而是考虑与审判、直接上诉和先前的附带审查期间可获得的记录有实质性不同的记录的累积效力。”
麦克斯韦尔是除爱泼斯坦本人以外唯一一个被指控涉嫌儿童性贩运阴谋的人，他一直认为联邦检察官有选择地将她作为爱泼斯坦的“替代品”，因为他在2019年被联邦拘留期间自杀身亡。
在用尽了所有的直接上诉后，Maxwell最初在去年12月提交了人身保护令申请，她在申请中声称关于她的案件出现了“大量的新证据”。最初的起诉提出了九个不同的理由，包括陪审员的不当行为和政府压制证据，因为她认为违反宪法破坏了她的审判的完整性。
今年早些时候，她获准延期修改她的论点，以解释DOJ公布的300多万份与爱泼斯坦有关的文件。
然而，美国地区法官Paul Engelmayer拒绝了Maxwell要求DOJ向她提供记录副本的请求。马克斯韦尔在狱中无法上网，她在修改后的请愿书中写道，她主要依靠媒体对爱泼斯坦文件的报道来构建她的论点，她称之为“几乎不可能的任务”。
“拒绝直接接触欧洲自由贸易联盟的材料构成了法院应该允许发现、扩大记录和证据听证，并应该拒绝政府立即驳回的请求的另一个理由，”她在一份答辩状中写道。
为了在人身保护令申请中获胜，Maxwell需要证明在她的审判或判决期间发生了严重的违反宪法的行为，或者出现了重要的新证据证明她的清白。
政府声称她远远没有达到那个标准。
“简而言之，被告——出于多种独立的原因——完全没有承担起推翻其正当定罪和公正判决的责任，”Pomerantz写道。“就被告声称新获得的证据证明应该重审这些相同的主张而言，她显然是错的。”
Maxwell已经要求Engelmayer法官-如果他决定拒绝她的请求-证明她的案件上诉到更高一级法院。如果她的人身保护申请失败，她剩下的选择可能仅限于请求唐纳德·特朗普总统赦免或宽大处理。
马克斯韦尔的前律师大卫·马库斯去年夏天告诉记者，马克斯韦尔没有要求赦免，但欢迎任何救济。
特朗普总统表示，他没有考虑赦免麦克斯韦尔，但也没有排除这种可能性。
马克斯韦尔是罗伯特·马克斯韦尔的女儿，就读于牛津大学。罗伯特·马克斯韦尔是一位传奇式的出版大亨，他白手起家的故事曾风靡英国。她在英国精英阶层中过着奢侈的生活，直到她父亲的商业帝国在1991年去世后崩溃。她搬到纽约寻找新的开始，很快就被发现与神秘的千万富翁爱泼斯坦在一起。
爱泼斯坦于2019年7月被捕，并在联邦起诉书中被控共谋和儿童性贩运。一个月后，他在候审期间死于羁押中。他的死亡被裁定为上吊自杀。
After release of Epstein files, Ghislaine Maxwell again challenges her conviction
Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell argues in a newly unsealed petition in federal court that documents released under theEpstein Files Transparency Acthave exposed alleged constitutional and legal violations that render her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction "invalid, unsafe and infirm," according to court documents made public on Wednesday.
Maxwell -- who is serving a20-year sentenceat a federal prison camp in Texas for aiding and participating in Epstein's trafficking of underage girls -- contends that among the millions of files disclosed by the Justice Department since the law passed in November are records that have "expanded the evidentiary landscape" of her case beyond what was considered by the trial judge and the appellate courts.
"No reasonable juror would have convicted her had these documents been placed before the jury or had the material [been] made available for cross examination and impeachment purposes," Maxwell wrote in her filing, which had been sealed since its submission in April.
Maxwell, 64, is representing herself in an effort to have her conviction vacated or her sentence reduced. She argues that the cumulative effect of the newly disclosed records demonstrates the need for an evidentiary hearing and contends that "further factual development is necessary."
She cites DOJ documents from theEpstein filesthat she alleges offer new support to her arguments that the government withheld relevant evidence, that witnesses testified falsely, and that attorneys for Epstein's victims acted as de facto prosecutors in her criminal case.
Federal prosecutors in New York, in a sweeping rebuttal spanning nearly 100 pages, called her claims speculative, factually erroneous and procedurally barred, according to a May 19 filing that was also unsealed Wednesday.
"The defendant seeks to sweep away the judgment of conviction representing the solemn verdict of a jury," wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Pomerantz, the only member of the government's trial team still working in the prosecutor's office in the Southern District of New York.
"[Maxwell's] lengthy papers make repeated baseless claims of government misconduct, unmoored from law, logic or the record," Pomerantz wrote in urging the court to swiftly reject Maxwell's petition and her request for an evidentiary hearing.
"Her victims deserve finality," Pomerantz wrote. "The supposedly new evidence the defendant cites ... affords her no relief."
The government conceded in its filing that, in some instances, documents that are now public were not in possession of Maxwell's attorneys before her trial -- but argued that none of those occurrences amounted to legal or constitutional violations or would have impacted the verdict.
Maxwell -- in a reply to the government filed earlier this month -- argued that the government's approach to her petition attempts to "minimize each category" of evidence individually, rather than evaluating the Epstein files and other post-trial developments as "components of a larger evidentiary picture."
"The issues presented here are not routine. The petition involves a substantial body of post-trial evidence disclosed years after conviction through a statutory transparency process that did not exist during the underlying proceedings," Maxwell wrote in her reply. "The Court's task therefore is not to evaluate each disclosure in isolation, but to consider the cumulative force of a record that is substantially different from the record available during trial, direct appeal, and prior collateral review."
Maxwell -- the only person charged in Epstein's alleged child sex trafficking conspiracy other than Epstein himself -- has long argued that federal prosecutors selectively targeted her as a "substitute" for Epstein, after hedied by suicidewhile in federal custody in 2019.
Having exhausted all of her direct appeals, Maxwell initially filed a habeas petition this past December in which she contended that "substantial new evidence" had emerged regarding her case. Theoriginal filingalleged nine separate grounds -- including juror misconduct and government suppression of evidence -- for her contention that constitutional violations undermined the integrity of her trial.
Earlier this year, she was granted an extension to amend her arguments to account for the release of more than three million Epstein-related files by the DOJ.
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, however, declined Maxwell's request that the DOJ be required to provide her with copies of the records. Maxwell, who has no internet access in prison, wrote in her amended petition that she relied largely on media reports on the Epstein files to construct her arguments, which she called "an almost impossible task."
"[T]he denial of direct access to the EFTA materials constitutes an additional reason why the Court should permit discovery, expansion of the record, and an evidentiary hearing and should decline the Government's request for summary dismissal," she wrote in a reply brief.
To prevail in a habeas petition, Maxwell would need to show that serious constitutional violations occurred during her trial or sentencing, or that significant new evidence has emerged demonstrating her innocence.
The government contends she has fallen well short of that standard.
"In short, the defendant -- for multiple, independent reasons -- utterly fails to carry her burden to overturn her proper conviction and just sentence," Pomerantz wrote. "And to the extent that the defendant contends that supposedly newly available evidence warrants revisiting these same claims, she is demonstrably wrong."
Maxwell has asked Judge Engelmayer -- should he decide to reject her petition -- to certify her case for an appeal to a higher court.If her habeas claims fail, her remaining options would likely be limited to a request to PresidentDonald Trumpfor a pardon or clemency.
Maxwell's former attorney, David Markus, told reporters last summer that Maxwell had not requested a pardon, but would welcome any relief.
President Trump has said he has not considered a pardon for Maxwell, but has not ruled it out.
Maxwell is the Oxford-educated daughter of Robert Maxwell, the larger-than-life publishing baron whose rags-to-riches story captivated England. She lived an extravagant life among the British elite until her father's business empire collapsed in the wake of his death in 1991. She relocated to New York looking for a fresh start and was soon seen in the company of the mysterious multimillionaire Epstein.
Epstein was arrested in July 2019 and charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy and child sex trafficking. He died in custody a month later, while awaiting trial. His death was ruled a suicide by hanging.
