A 'Flawed' DOJ Deal Could Upend Ghislaine Maxwell's Conviction

A 2007 nonprosecution agreement is now the basis for Maxwell’s petition before the Supreme Court. Thousands of defense lawyers think she has a case.

https://www.notus.org/courts/doj-deal-ghislaine-maxwell-conviction



Any attempt from the Justice Department to pressure Ghislaine Maxwell to tell them what she knows about Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes will have to contend with a tricky fact: The Supreme Court could soon overturn her entire conviction and set her free without her needing to cut any new deals with prosecutors.

DOJ officials are meeting with Maxwell Thursday, after Attorney General Pam Bondi directed the department to seek out more information from her about Epstein and his potential accomplices. “If Ghislane [sic] Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement earlier this week.

That decision came after days of outcry over the Trump administration’s decision not to release the so-called “Epstein files,” and a steady drumbeat of reports about President Donald Trump’s former relationship with Epstein. Maxwell’s place in the long-running Epstein saga is unique, and could quickly become legally perilous for the DOJ.

Palm Beach County police — dissatisfied with a tepid 2006 state indictment of Epstein — tossed the case over to the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, who negotiated a lenient non-prosecution agreement that covered Epstein and co-conspirators too. After a Miami Herald exposé drew attention to how the deal hamstrung Epstein’s many underage victims, federal prosecutors in Manhattan indicted him again, only to have him die in jail. After being caught lying low in New Hampshire, Maxwell was convicted in New York.

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