Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell to seek prison release, opposes unsealing grand jury materials

ISTANBUL

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of late disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, plans to file a legal petition seeking her release from prison, according to a court filing submitted Wednesday.

Maxwell will represent herself in arguing her detention is unlawful through a habeas corpus petition, a legal challenge claiming someone is being held illegally.

The specific reasons for her challenge were not detailed in the one-page document filed to US District Judge Paul Engelmayer by Maxwell's attorneys.

Attorneys said releasing grand jury materials from her case which may "contain untested and unproven allegations" would create "undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial" if her petition succeeds. Grand jury materials contain evidence and testimony gathered before charges are filed.

The filing responds to the Justice Department's November request to unseal grand jury records from prosecutions of Epstein and Maxwell following President Donald Trump’s signing last month of the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law requiring the release of related files.

Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 on charges related to recruiting girls, some as young as 14, for Epstein and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison in June 2022.

The Supreme Court rejected her appeal in October 2025, upholding her conviction on five counts related to sex trafficking and abuse, including sex trafficking of a minor.

Epstein died in 2019 at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.