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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Edward Helmore

Judge rejects Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking appeal, calling claims ‘demonstrably meritless’

a hand points to a picture of a man and a woman
Audrey Strauss, acting US attorney for the southern district of New York, points to a photo of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell during a news conference in New York on 2 July 2020. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

A federal judge has rejected Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal effort to throw out her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges and 20-year prison sentence, calling her claims “demonstrably meritless, and generally based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods”.

In a 67-page decision filed on Tuesday, the US district judge Paul Engelmayer for New York’s southern district denied the former British socialite’s petition for relief, finding that Maxwell had failed to make a substantial showing that her constitutional rights were denied when she was convicted for her role in crimes linked to the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

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