NEWYORK –
Lawyers for British social media site Ghislaine Maxwell called for leniency in sentencing, asking the judge on Wednesday to ignore the probation department’s recommendation of a 20-year prison sentence for her sex trafficking charges and role in the financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls.
They said in court papers in Manhattan federal court that Maxwell deserved leniency, calling it “a betrayal of justice for her to face a sentence that would have been appropriate for her.” Epstein.” Epstein took his own life while awaiting a federal sex trafficking trial in New York in 2019.
The lawyers wrote in advance: “Ghislaine Maxwell is not an heiress, villain or unlucky gangster. She has worked hard. of a sentencing scheduled for June 28.
They write that her life has been ruined and that she has faced harsh prison conditions and punishments so support the request to significantly reduce sentencing guidelines that would otherwise subject her to decades in prison.
They also argued that leniency was deserved because she had a “difficult, traumatic childhood with an overbearing, narcissistic and demanding father” that left her “vulnerable to Epstein, whom she gave birth to met shortly after her father passed away.”
“It was the biggest mistake she’d made in her life and one she didn’t and will never repeat,” they said.
They added that she has had two committed, long-term, loving relationships with men with young children in the 15 years since her relationship with Epstein ended.
Prosecutors declined to comment through a spokesman. They will submit their own written arguments before sentencing.
In its final report, the probation department recommended a 20-year prison sentence, which would be a slight reduction from what sentencing guidelines would require, Maxwell’s attorneys said.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of recruiting underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse him between 1994 and 2004.
US District Judge Alison J. Nathan in April upheld Maxwell’s jury’s conviction, saying it was “ready supported” by witness testimony and extensive documentary evidence at a trial. lasts a month.
Earlier this year, Nathan refused to plead guilty to Maxwell on the grounds that a juror while deliberating told other jurors that he had been sexually abused as a child even though he had did not disclose it when responding to questions about previous sexual abuse in a written questionnaire given. for future jurors.
