The chances of success in a Supreme Court appeal are low. Here’s how Ghislaine Maxwell hopes to beat them:
DOJ releases Ghislaine Maxwell interview audio
The Justice Department has released audio of an interview with Gislaine Maxwell, including comments on Jeffrey Epstein and President Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court will consider whether Ghislaine Maxwell will appeal September 29th.
Maxwell filed an appeal in the High Court on April 10, claiming that her conviction for sex trafficking should abandon the minors to financial figures Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein was convicted in 2008 for soliciting minors for prostitution and was awaiting a sex trafficking trial in a Manhattan prison in 2019.
Maxwell recently relied on her after facing anger after the Trump administration announced in July that it would not release government files on Epstein.
The 63-year-old former British socialite conducted a two-day interview in July, where she failed to maintain her innocence and provide an obvious lead to investigators. Still, she was transferred to the prison in Kusia, which particularly upsets Epstein and Maxwell’s accusers, saying she doesn’t deserve priority treatment in light of her crimes.
Let’s take a look at Maxwell’s next thing:
What is Maxwell claiming in her complaint?
Maxwell argues that prosecutors could not have been able to chase her due to the terms of the plea deal signed by Epstein in 2007 months before he officially pleaded guilty to two Florida prostitution charges in 2007. The agreement contained provisions that protected potential Epstein conspirators from criminal charges.
That means federal prosecutors weren’t allowed to chase her, Maxwell says.
The Supreme Court said “When the United States makes a promise in a judicial agreement, it should ensure that it is bound by that promise,” she said in a petition in the High Court.
What does the Department of Justice say?
The Justice Department told the Supreme Court that a contract with Epstein from 2007 to 2008 only applied to prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, while Maxwell was charged in the Southern District of New York, so prosecutors against Maxwell were allowed.
According to the Justice Department, it is clear if provisions protecting potential conspirators are read in the context of other languages of the judiciary agreement.
“In particular, the (judicial agreement) summoned the authority of R. Alexander Acosta, a US Attorney (USAO) for the Southern District of Florida, and listed only those USAO staff in its signature block,” according to a summary to the Supreme Court. This indicates that “the agreement was with the USAO, not the entire DOJ.”
What’s Maxwell’s chance?
Generally speaking, it is unlikely that a successful suit will be made to the Supreme Court.
First, the High Court must agree to consider appeals. This is a decision that usually allows different parties to submit more briefs and present oral arguments before justice makes a decision. According to the US court system, only about 1-2% of appeals that are accepted for review each year are appealed.
Maxwell’s appeal has been considered in the Supreme Court’s “Long Conference.” This is an event in which the judicial reviews up to 2,000 petitions accumulated over the summer holidays. Statistically speaking, it is even less likely that an appeal from that meeting will be reviewed. According to Scotusblog, a news site dedicated to the Supreme Court, the judiciary has agreed to review the 5-15-year-old range of these petitions since 2015. This is consistently less than 1%.
The strongest argument in Maxwell’s appeal is not particularly relevant to her case, and may be related to how her case affects other cases.
Her appeals show that mid-term courts in various regions of the country will not look to whether agreements from some federal prosecutors in the country will detain federal prosecutors somewhere else. If the Supreme Court assumes her appeal, it can resolve that question not only for her, but for everyone in the country facing it, according to her appeal.
However, the Justice Department has made it clear that the language of the Epstein agreement was not detained by federal prosecutors of New York against Maxwell. Even if other agreements within the country were intended to detain federal prosecutors in all jurisdictions, Maxwell’s case is not an appropriate measure to address it, according to the department’s summary.
The Supreme Court may analyse these arguments to determine whether Maxwell’s case is worth a limited amount of time.
What happens next?
The Supreme Court could either decide within days whether to consider Maxwell’s case or to make a decision by cornering her petition down at a future meeting.
If a judge takes the case, they will likely set up a day to schedule Maxwell and the government to submit written arguments and hear both sides have verbal discussions in court. The actual decision will probably not come for months.
If the judge doesn’t take the case, Maxwell can pursue a new appeal. Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Marx said there was previously another plan for an appeal.
Can Trump forgive Maxwell?
Maxwell was convicted in a federal case, so President Donald Trump has the power to relent her.
Marx says he hopes Trump will exercise his power “in a right and fair way,” and his clients are happy to testify before Congress if Trump first gives her generosity.
Trump said he had that power during a question from a Scottish reporter on July 28th, adding that it was “inappropriate” to discuss it.
