The Supreme Court justices are meeting in private Monday to discuss various petitions submitted over the summer, including Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal over her child sex trafficking criminal conviction.
Maxwell, the former girlfriend of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has asked the justices to review whether prosecutors fairly brought a case against her.
It comes as House Democrats, and a few Republicans, look to vote to compel the Justice Department to release any remaining files that haven’t been made public in the investigation into Epstein and his underage sex trafficking network.
Newly-elected Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva, of Arizona, said she would agree to sign the measure once she’s sworn in, becoming the final vote needed to succeed. It’s unclear when her swearing-in ceremony will take place.
Until Democrats can compel a vote on the Epstein files release, eyes will be on the Supreme Court to see whether or not they agree to take up Maxwell’s case.
Lawyers for Maxwell, 63, argue that the government shouldn’t have pursued a case against her because Epstein struck a deal with Florida prosecutors in 2007, in which they agreed not to prosecute potential co-conspirators of the disgraced financier.
The controversial deal, called a non-prosecutorial agreement, allowed Epstein to avoid federal sex trafficking charges if he pleaded guilty to two state prostitution charges. It also included a clause protecting co-conspirators from the specific charges against Epstein.
Prosecutors in New York subsequently brought federal sex trafficking charges against Epstein in 2019. He died by suicide while being held in a federal prison shortly after his arrest, before a trial could take place.
Maxwell was indicted in 2020 for crimes associated with Epstein’s decades-long scheme to recruit young women and girls into his orbit and then sexually abuse them. In 2021, she was found guilty of child sex trafficking, among other crimes, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
A lower court has previously ruled that Epstein’s non-prosecutorial agreement was only binding in the region of Florida where it was made. That is ultimately the decision Maxwell is asking the Supreme Court to review.
In order for the court to agree to hear Maxwell’s appeal, four of the nine justices must agree to take up the case. Lawyers in the Justice Department have asked the Supreme Court to deny Maxwell’s case. The court could announce its decision as early as this week.
The resurgence of public interest in the government’s investigation into Epstein has put Maxwell back in the spotlight.
President Donald Trump had promised to release the Epstein files while on the campaign trail. And while some new information was released, Trump and senior members of his administration have refused to release the files in their entirety.
There has been a resurgence of conspiracies about Trump’s relationship with Epstein, and if the government is trying to protect high-profile individuals who were associated with the sex offender, after the Justice Department concluded that no further investigation was needed in early July.
Trump and Epstein were friends in the 1990s and 2000s but the president severed ties with him in the mid-2000s. Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein’s crimes.
To try to quell the furore, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell over two days this summer at a Florida courthouse, close to the maximum security prison where she was serving time.
Maxwell agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department and days after the interview, she was suddenly moved to a minimum security prison in Texas.
Her lawyers have refused the opportunity for her to voluntarily testify to Congress unless some form of clemency is given.
Maxwell has not formally sought a pardon from Trump. The president has acknowledged his pardoning power but has not committed to giving her one.
