NY judge denies Ghislaine Maxwell's self-represented habeas corpus bid

Molly Crane-Newman, New York Daily News on Aug 25, 2026

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NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge on Tuesday denied Ghislaine Maxwell’s self-represented, Hail Mary bid to get out of prison, finding the “rambling petition” brought by Jeffrey Epstein’s madame meritless.

The Manhattan Federal Court petition filed by the British former socialite in December argued that new information arising in related lawsuits against her and the deceased sexual predator Epstein, in addition to disclosures by the government amid the Epstein files, proved her imprisonment was unlawful.

Maxwell had also renewed arguments that were unsuccessful on appeal, claiming that her rights were violated at her 2021 trial and subsequent sentencing to 20 years in prison.

“In a lengthy and rambling petition which Maxwell twice supplemented with similarly discursive addenda, she claims that her constitutional rights at trial and sentencing were violated in multiple respects,” Manhattan Federal Court Judge Paul Engelmayer wrote.

“Maxwell’s claims are all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous,” the opinion continued. “(T)he purported ‘new’ evidence to which Maxwell points, principally materials released under the (Epstein Files Transparency Act), is largely irrelevant to the charges against Maxwell and does not support her claims of error. On the contrary, to the extent it is relevant, far from exculpating her, it incriminates her or reinforces the correctness of the legal rulings Maxwell challenges.”

A jury convicted Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime associate of sex trafficking girls and young women to be abused by Epstein for about a decade starting in 1994 following a monthlong trial in December 2021.

Four women testified to being groomed by Maxwell and abused by her and Epstein, primarily at the well-connected wealth manager’s Palm Beach, Florida, home. One of them, Carolyn Andriano, said the abuse began when she was 14. She died of a drug overdose in 2023.

Maxwell is serving her sentence at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas. She was moved there last summer from a much less comfortable setup at a maximum security prison in Tallahassee, Florida.

The switch-up came after she sat down with Todd Blanche, President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, who was then deputy attorney general and has since been confirmed as attorney general.

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