Ghislaine Maxwell case back in court as she appeals 2021 sex trafficking conviction

Disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell returns to the spotlight today as lawyers launch an appeal over her conviction for sex trafficking in 2021.

Maxwell, 62, was sentenced to 20 years behind bars last year, after being found guilty of five counts of trafficking and abusing young girls over decades with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Her appeal, which is taking place at a federal court in New York, is set to begin at 2pm.

Follow the updates from The Independent here:

At her 2021 trial, four witnesses testified about the abuse they suffered at the hands of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein.

Here’s what they said, Rachel Sharp writes

Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal in her 2021 sex trafficking conviction has begun, with the disgraced socialite’s attorney Diana Fabi Samson addressing the three judges.

We’ll bring you updates from the courtroom shortly.

Though there was no mention of it during Tuesday’s hearing, lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell later addressed the issue of an “impartial juror” outside court.

Arthur Aidala, said that the failure of juror Scotty David to disclose he had been the victim of sexual assault was “wrong” and that Mr David had “totally misrepresented the truth”.

“What's worse is after the fact he goes on national television and says what a big role he played in the jury, basically acting as an expert witness to explain some of the flaws in the prosecution's case and speaking in his capacity as a victim of a sexual act.

“That is absolutely verboten. It's wrong. And although the judge had a hearing, and he acknowledged he wasn't accurate at all she said, ‘well, I think he made an honest mistake by not checking off that box so I'm going to let the verdict stand.”

Mr Aidala continued: “If we allow that to happen in the United States of America, each and every one of us are in jeopardy, because it could be your father, your uncle, your aunt, your cousin who's on trial, and you really want someone who's sitting in the jury box who've been so afflicted by something so similar, in that they cannot be fair and impartial.

“It's all about being fair. And there are certain things that could happen in one's life that makes you unable to be fair and impartial. And that was the case in Ghislaine Maxwell’s jury box. And [Mr David] admits that he played a heavy role in there.

“On that grounds the case that would cause the case to be reversed to go back to a new trial.

Mr Aidala said the case should be “dismissed”, adding: “If we allow the government to make deals with the citizens with us, and then they decide, for whatever reason, they're going to rip up that room and rip up that deal, that handshake means nothing.”

Earlier this year a trove of documents containing information about the associates of late paedophil Jeffrey Epstein were unsealed. Ghislaine Maxwell – his accomplice and former girlfried was named multiple times in the documents.

The documents were part of a defamation lawsuit brought against Maxwell back in 2015 by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre – documents which years later a judge finally ordered to be released.

Shortly after the unsealing, Maxwell’s attorneys Arthur Aidala and Diana Fabi Samson released a statement in which she continued to insist her innocence and vowed to plough ahead with her appeal.

Read the statement, and full story, here:

Attorneys representing Ghislaine Maxwell were expected to argue that their client did not get a fair trial because, among other things, one of the jurors, Scotty David, failed to disclose in his juror questionnaire that he is a survivor of sexual abuse.

Attorney Diana Fabi Samson was only given 10 minutes for the defence arguments, and used the time to say that Maxwell should have been protected by provisions a prior agreement made between Jeffrey Epstein and federal prosecturors in 2008.

There was no mention of Mr David during the hearing.

It was a 2021 interview journalist Lucia Osborne-Crowley conducted with Mr David, known as Juror 50, published in The Independent in the weeks following the Maxwell sex-trafficking verdict that led her legal team to appeal over her conviction.

But Tuesday’s hearing ended without any mention of Juror 50.

One of Maxwell’s attorneys, Arthur Aidala later addressed the issue of an “impartial juror” outside court.

Judge Alison Nathan, who presided over the trial in 2021, said Maxwell’s behaviour had been “heinous and predatory”.

The court heard harrowing testimony from victims who described how Maxwell had lured them to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s homes where they were abused.

Maxwell was found guilty of recruiting and grooming four teenagers for sexual abuse by Epstein, who was her boyfriend at the time, and who killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting his own sex trafficking trial.

On Tuesday, an appeal court on New York heard that Maxwell should have been protected from conviction by provisions of a non-prosecution agreement made between Epstein and prosecutors in Florida in 2008.

Ghislaine Maxwell was not present for her appeal hearing, which took place in front of a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

The disgraced British socialite is currently being held at the Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee, in Florida.

It is believed that Maxwell listened to the proceedings via phone from prison.