On Monday, Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, called on the Supreme Court to overturn her sex trafficking conviction.
“We are appealing not only to the Supreme Court but to the President himself to recognize how profoundly unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s crimes, especially when the government promised she would not be prosecuted,” attorney David Oscar Markus said in a statement.
Maxwell’s attorney argues her conviction violates a nonprosecution agreement Epstein signed with federal prosecutors. The appeal turns on the scope of the 2007 deal, which let Epstein avoid federal charges for pleading guilty to state-level sex crimes in Florida and serving 18 months in prison.
The deal was signed by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Lower courts ruled the deal only covers that district and doesn’t apply to federal prosecutors in New York, where Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aiding Epstein in abusing underage girls.
“Rather than grapple with the core principles of plea agreements, the government tries to distract by reciting a lurid and irrelevant account of Jeffrey Epstein’s misconduct,” Markus wrote in the new brief.
“But this case is about what the government promised, not what Epstein did.”
Last week, Maxwell sat for a two-day interview with the Justice Department’s No. 2 official, Todd Blanche. (RELATED: Justice Department Seeks Meeting With Ghislaine Maxwell In Epstein Case)
The new statement came as Maxwell made her final plea to the Supreme Court on Monday before the justices decide whether to take up her case. Maxwell filed the appeal in April, and the justices are poised to consider it upon returning from their summer recess.
The Justice Department has so far opposed Maxwell’s Supreme Court appeal.
Markus’s latest comments mark his most direct suggestion yet of Trump intervening. Markus said Friday he hadn’t spoken to the president yet about a pardon and “we’re going to take one day at a time.”
Trump has punted on whether he would pardon Maxwell. Trump said Monday that “I’m allowed to give her” a pardon, but “nobody’s approached me.”
“I’m allowed to give her a pardon,” Trump insisted, repeating a claim he made on his way to Scotland on Friday. “Nobody has approached me with it or asked me about it. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it. But right now it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”
READ NEXT: Republican Congressman Enters Georgia Senate Race
Sponsored
Stand for Liberty — Support Education That Refuses Government Strings. Hillsdale takes zero taxpayer dollars so it can teach truth without compromise. Help preserve freedom—make a tax-deductible gift today!
