Accused sex trafficker and former Jeffrey Epstein confidante, Ghislaine Maxwell, told the judge overseeing her case that several of the counts contained in the indictment against her should be dismissed in light of the recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in the Bill Cosby case, according to a court filing late this afternoon.
Maxwell's attorneys write, "as in Cosby, the government is trying to renege on its agreement and prosecute Ms. Maxwell over 25 years later for the exact same offenses for which she was granted immunity in the NPA."
Maxwell is referring to 2007 non-prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors out of Miami and deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein which does not name Maxwell specifically but says federal prosecutors in Florida agreed to not prosecute any co-conspirators.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have previously argued that the NPA, to which Maxwell is not a party and never signed, does not apply to her.
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In today’s filing Maxwell says counts 1,3,5, and 6 of the superseding indictment should be dismissed as a result of the Cosby opinion.
A superseding indictment filed in March accuses Maxwell of grooming and paying a 14-year-old girl to engage in sex acts with Epstein at his home in Palm Beach, Florida, from 2001 to 2004.
Maxwell was already facing six counts tied to Epstein's alleged sex trafficking network following her arrest in July of 2020.
Prosecutors had accused Maxwell of facilitating the abuse of three young girls in the mid-1990s. The new indictment adds a fourth alleged victim and accuses Maxwell of enabling Epstein's abuse into the mid-2000s.
The indictment says Maxwell and others called up the victim to schedule the encounters and paid her hundreds of dollars in cash after each visit.
Maxwell "sought to normalize inappropriate and abusive conduct by, among other things, discussing sexual topics in front of [the victim] and being present when [the victim] was nude in the massage room of the Palm Beach residence" of Epstein, the indictment says.
She has denied all of the allegations through her attorneys.
Earlier this week the PA Supreme Court determined it was improper for then Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor to essentially promise Cosby that he wouldn't be charged for his alleged sexual assault of Andrea Constand in an effort for him to waive his 5th Amendment rights in a civil proceeding and then have prosecutors over a decade later use those statements against Cosby.
Epstein pleaded guilty following a multi-year investigation into multiple allegations of sexual assault against teenage girls.
He signed a non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Miami in '07 but in 2019, because the conduct also had a nexus to Manhattan, federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York brought charges.
While awaiting trial Epstein died by suicide.
Prosecutors have yet to respond to Maxwell's arguments.
