A federal judge forcefully rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s attempt to vacate her conviction and sentence for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, ruling Tuesday that her claims of constitutional violations were “frivolous.”
U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in New York wrote in an opinion that nothing in Maxwell’s “lengthy and rambling” petition — filed in December without assistance from lawyers — offered support to reconsider her five felony convictions or 20-year federal prison sentence.
“Her petition’s claims are demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods,” Engelmayer wrote. “There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial.”