Ghislaine Maxwell Asks Judge To Dismiss Her Case, Complains Jurors Are Not Diverse Enough

Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s cohort Ghislaine Maxwell asked Monday that her case be dismissed, saying that a previous prosecution agreement that had protected Epstein also protected her.

In Monday night court filings, Maxwell’s lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the case accusing her of recruiting teenaged girls for Epstein, according to Reuters.

The British socialite’s lawyers also complained that her jurors were not diverse enough, the publication reported, and said that parts of her indictment should be thrown out due to vagueness.

“The fact that Ms Maxwell herself is neither Black nor Hispanic does not deprive of her of standing to raise this challenge,” the attorneys said, according to the Guardian, adding that the U.S. constitution “entitles every defendant to object to a [pool] that is not designed to represent a fair cross section of the community, whether or not the systematically excluded groups are groups to which he himself belongs.”

Her lawyers had previously argued that Maxwell is being subjected to conditions unequal to her fellow prisoners, saying this treatment stems from fears over Epstein’s apparent suicide last summer in a New York City jail.

“As a result of what occurred with Mr. Epstein, Ms. Maxwell is being treated worse than other similarly situated pretrial detainees,” the lawyers said in an early August letter. The letter asked for her to be transferred into the general jail population while she awaits her trial.

Maxwell was arrested by the FBI at 8:30 a.m. July 2, 2020 in Bradford, New Hampshire. A grand jury for the U.S. District Court of Southern New York indicted Maxwell on charges of conspiracy to entice minors to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors to these illegal sex acts, transportation of a minor to engage in illegal sex acts, and perjury.

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan denied bail to Maxwell during a virtual hearing in July, saying “the risks are simply too great” to allow her to be released on bail.