Convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, former companion to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has said she will ask a judge to release her from prison.
Maxwell has filed a court petition to release her from the minimum-security federal camp in Texas, according to The New York Times. In a letter filed by her attorney, David Oscar Markus, on Wednesday in a Manhattan Federal Court, Maxwell did not include details about why she was filing the habeas petition.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite and longtime associate of Epstein, was arrested in July 2020 by federal agents in New Hampshire on multiple charges related to her role in Epstein's alleged sex trafficking operation.
After a high-profile trial in December 2021, Maxwell was convicted on five of six counts, including sex trafficking of a minor, and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Prosecutors argued she played a crucial role in facilitating Epstein's systematic sexual abuse of underage girls.
The news comes months after a controversial meeting in July between Maxwell and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. At the time, critics felt that President Donald Trump's Justice Department inappropriately gave a high‑profile convicted sex trafficker a special, closed‑door audience with the DOJ's second‑highest official.
Sending a Trump ally to question Maxwell about Epstein and other individuals created a conflict of interest and could be construed as a scheme to protect the president and other powerful figures, critics have said.
