The Department of Justice told the Supreme Court Monday that it should deny hearing convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for trafficking girls to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, claimed a 2007 non-prosecution agreement in Florida between Epstein and the government covered her as well.
But a federal appeals court already ruled against the 63-year-old, and the Department of Justice is now calling on the Supreme Court to do the same.
“It would be extremely strange if the NPA left Epstein himself open to federal prosecution in another district — as eventually occurred,” Solicitor General John Sauer and two other prosecutors write in the brief, “while protecting his coconspirators from prosecution anywhere.”
Maxwell, the brief continues, “was not a party to the relevant agreement; only Epstein and the Florida USAO were parties to the NPA.”
Maxwell’s lawyer, David Markus, told the Daily Beast in a statement that he would “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.”
Markus added: “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 US government made and broke.”
The Justice Department’s filing comes amid a lingering controversy surrounding Maxwell, Epstein and the circumstances of the latter’s death, which was ruled a suicide in prison in 2019. Earlier this month, the Justice Department and the FBI announced in a memo that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted” over what has been called the “Epstein files.”
That decision has fractured President Donald Trump’s supporters, especially since Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel had said they would make those files public.
In response, the president has urged them to put the matter the in rearview mirror and “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein,” who “never dies.”
Trump told Maxwell that he “wished her well” upon her arrest in 2020. New York Daily News Archive/NY Daily News via Getty Images
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?’ They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!” he wrote on Truth Social.
After Maxwell was arrested in July 2020, Trump, who had spoken fondly of Epstein years before, said, “I just wish her well, frankly.” Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and sentenced the following year.
