Ghislaine Maxwell again asks judge to vacate her sex trafficking conviction and release her

Source: ABC News

April 22, 2026, 1:26 PM


Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted co-conspirator of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is again asking a federal judge in New York to vacate her sex trafficking conviction and release her from prison.

Maxwell submitted her new request, which she wrote herself, to federal prosecutors in New York, who said they received "a FedEx envelope -- marked with a 'ship date' of April 16, 2026 -- that contained a USB drive with the defendant's amended motion and exhibits," according to a letter to the district court that was posted online early Monday morning.

Prosecutors did not disclose details of Maxwell's argument, which has not yet been filed on the public docket, but said it "seems to have some overlap" with her original motion to dismiss that district and appellate courts rejected in 2024. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently declined to hear her appeal.

Having exhausted all of her direct appeals, Maxwell filed a habeas petition this past December in which she contended that "substantial new evidence has emerged" regarding her case. Maxwell's submission this week comes after the district court judge, in February, allowed Maxwell to submit an amendment to that petition following the Justice Department's release of the Epstein files.

Read more: https://abcnews.com/US/ghislaine-maxwell-asks-judge-vacate-sex-trafficking-conviction/story?id=132272145