The Department of Justice on Monday urged the Supreme Court to turn away an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for conspiring with and aiding Epstein in his sexual abuse of underage girls.
Maxwell, 63, had urged the court earlier this year to review her case, arguing that an unusual co-conspirator’s clause in Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Florida barred her subsequent prosecution in New York. A district court and a federal appeals court previously rejected that argument, and the DOJ today urged the high court to do the same.
“That contention is incorrect, and petitioner does not show that it would succeed in any court of appeals,” wrote U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer.
At the core of Maxwell’s petition for SCOTUS review is her contention that the language of Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement (NPA) specifically limited his protection to the Southern District of Florida, whereas the language of the co-conspirator clause should have been read to prohibit her prosecution in any federal district.
The co-conspirator clause stated that if “Epstein successfully fulfills all of the terms and conditions of this agreement, the United States also agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein, including but not limited to” four of Epstein’s assistants. Maxwell was not among the four women named.
“Despite the existence of a non-prosecution agreement promising in plain language that the United States would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, the United States in fact prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell as a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein,” her attorneys wrote in their petition to SCOTUS in April.
The DOJ, however, argues in their response that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida — then led by R. Alexander Acosta — did not intend to bind other federal districts and had no authority to do so without the approval of those districts or the Criminal Division of the DOJ.
“And there is no indication here that anyone involved in negotiating Epstein’s NPA obtained the necessary approval for binding other USAOs or thought it was necessary,” the DOJ’s brief states.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Patrick Mcmullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
The DOJ also contends that – even if the co-conspirators clause could be read to apply nationwide as Maxwell claims – there is no evidence that the parties who negotiated the NPA intended for the co-conspirators clause to benefit Maxwell, who the government describes as “at most, an incidental third-party beneficiary of the agreement.”
“The government was not even aware of [Maxwell’s] role in Epstein’s scheme at that time,” Sauer wrote, and urged the justices to deny Maxwell’s petition for certiorari.
In a statement Monday, an attorney for Maxwell hinted at the swirling controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s decision not to release any further records related to investigations of Epstein.
“I’d be surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to let the government break a deal. He’s the ultimate dealmaker—and I’m sure he’d agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it. With all the talk about who’s being prosecuted and who isn’t, it’s especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the government made and broke,” wrote David Oscar Markus.
Sigrid McCawley, an attorney who has represented hundreds of alleged Epstein victims, including one of the trial’s key witnesses against Maxwell, told ABC News in a statement that Maxwell should stay behind bars.
“After two-plus decades of recruiting and abusing young girls trapped in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking enterprise, Ghislaine Maxwell has again attempted to escape accountability by trying to hide behind the non-prosecution agreement. Maxwell does not deserve any protection, and she should remain in prison for the horrific crimes she committed,” wrote McCawley, a managing partner at Boies Schiller Flexner.
Maxwell — who pleaded not guilty to all the criminal charges against her — was convicted by a jury in 2021 on five of six counts, including conspiracy, sex trafficking of a minor, and transporting a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.
Prosecutors alleged that Maxwell played a “key role” in a multi-state sex trafficking scheme in which she allegedly “befriended” and later “enticed and groomed multiple minor girls to engage in sex acts with Epstein” and was also, at times, “present for and involved” in the abuse herself.
“A unanimous jury has found Ghislaine Maxwell guilty of one of the worst crimes imaginable — facilitating and participating in the sexual abuse of children,” then-U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement following the verdict.
