Ghislaine Maxwell's family says she will continue to fight charges she aided Epstein
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected her challenge to her conviction.
Two days after a federal judge rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's challenge to her conviction on five counts of aiding Jeffrey Epstein in his abuse of underage girls, her family said Thursday that she will continue to fight the verdict.
Family members, in a statement released Thursday, criticized the judge's ruling as "disappointing and shocking" after U.S. District Judge Engelmayer rejected Maxwell's arguments as "frivolous" and "meritless."
"The court's opinion, as published, is marked by a tone of sarcasm and disdain that, in our view, undermines the appearance of impartiality and invites scrutiny of the judge's conduct," the family's statement said, while indicating that Maxwell intends to continue to press her case.
"[W]e are stating clearly: our sister is not going to let the matter rest. The District Court's ruling contains multiple, concrete errors that she intends to challenge fully," the family said.
Maxwell, 64, was convicted in 2021 on five felony counts arising from her participation with Epstein in the sexual abuse of young girls over the course of a decade. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. A federal appeals court upheld her conviction and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up her case.
In court filings earlier this year, Maxwell had asked Engelmayer -- should he decide to reject her petition -- to certify her case for an appeal to a higher court.
But in his ruling Tuesday, Engelmayer wrote that Maxwell had not "made a substantial showing of a denial of a constitutional right, and appellate review is therefore not warranted."
"Notwithstanding the District Court's conclusion, we have encouraged our sister to maintain her fight for a fair hearing and to apply to the court for the necessary relief -- including, if required, a certificate of appealability -- so that she may lodge an appeal and have these issues properly reviewed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit," the family said Thursday.
Judge Engelmayer, in a 67-page decision, rejected each of the "10 principal claims" Maxwell raised in what he referred to as her "lengthy and meandering" pro se petition and supplemental filings containing "similarly discursive addenda." Engelmayer denied her petition without the evidentiary hearing Maxwell sought.
Maxwell had argued -- in an amended petition filed in April -- that documents released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act had exposed constitutional and legal violations that rendered her conviction "invalid, unsafe, and infirm." She cited DOJ documents from the Epstein files that she contended offered new support to her arguments that the government withheld relevant evidence, that witnesses testified falsely, and that attorneys for Epstein's victims acted as de facto prosecutors in her criminal case.
Maxwell's petition "falls very far from the mark," Engelmayer wrote, describing her claims as "demonstrably meritless" and "based on speculation, distortions, and/or outright falsehoods."
The judge also rebuked Maxwell's contention that federal prosecutors selectively targeted her as a substitute for Epstein, after he died by suicide while in federal custody in 2019.
"As the trial showed, the case against Maxwell was based on abundant admissible evidence establishing her knowing participation in enabling a notorious child sex abuser to carry out historically heinous crimes," Engelmayer wrote. "Far from being discriminatory or unjust, this was the epitome of a virtuous prosecution. The Government and the jury justly held Maxwell accountable for gravely serious federal offenses."
Maxwell met for nine hours with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in July 2025, about a week before she was moved to a more relaxed federal prison camp in Texas. The Justice Department denied there was any connection between the two occurrences.
Maxwell, born in France on Christmas Day, 1961, is the youngest of nine children. Her father, Robert Maxwell, was a flamboyant billionaire and larger-than-life British icon and media tycoon in the 1970s and 1980s. She lived an extravagant life among the British elite until her father's business empire collapsed in the wake of his death. She fled to New York looking for a fresh start and was soon seen in the company of the mysterious multimillionaire Epstein.
During her criminal trial in Manhattan, several of her siblings were in regular attendance in the courtroom.
"We remain steadfast in our support of Ghislaine who will continue to pursue every available legal avenue to ensure that the constitutional and due process questions in this case receive the serious, neutral consideration they deserve," the family's statement said Thursday.
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