Appeals court upholds sex crimes conviction of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell

A federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday upheld the sex crimes conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associated of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Ghislaine, in March, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming the underage girls who Epstein sexually abused, arguing she was immunized by an agreement federal prosecutors in Florida arranged with Epstein in 2007.

On Tuesday, the appeals court ruled that Maxwell was not covered by Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement and said the alleged crimes fell within the statute of limitations.

Maxwell's attorneys had argued that she was made a "proxy" for Epstein, who died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial, to "satisfy public outrage" about his conduct.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 after prosecutors said that, from 1994 to 2004, she worked together with Epstein to identify girls, groom them, and then transport them to Epstein's properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and elsewhere. The girls -- some of whom were as young as 14 years old -- were then sexually abused, often under the guise of a "massage," prosecutors said.

Maxwell is currently incarcerated in a low-security prison in Tallahassee and eligible for release in 2037.