Maxwell's attempt at freedom 'deeply troubling': Survivor
The Hill · C · trust 52/100
Comments: by Diana Falzone - 08/25/26 12:24 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Diana Falzone - 08/25/26 12:24 PM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING ( NewsNation ) — Ghislaine Maxwell, who was charged as a co-conspirator of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, was recently denied a bid to overturn her sexual abuse crimes conviction on Tuesday.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for her part in the alleged sex trafficking scheme, which involved minors, attempted to have her conviction thrown out earlier this year.
In a motion made public Tuesday, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ruled Maxwell was unauthorized to file any more requests to toss out her conviction.
The summary read in part, “Maxwell, however, is not to submit any further filings. Any such filings will not be considered.”
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
After the judge’s decision was made public, former Playboy Playmate Audra Christiansen called Maxwell’s motion to try to overturn her conviction “deeply troubling.”
“For decades, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s network fought to be taken seriously. Many were children or very young women like me when they were exploited,” she told NewsNation. “They lived with the consequences while powerful people had access to money, attorneys, influence and institutions that repeatedly failed to protect victims.” “Maxwell now argues that attorneys representing Epstein’s accusers somehow acted as ‘de facto prosecutors’ and that newly released documents prove her due process rights were violated,” Christiansen continued. “A federal judge has rejected those claims, finding that the supposed new evidence was largely irrelevant to her case.”
She accused Epstein of sexual abuse in 2004, and asked Playboy founder Hugh Hefner to report him to the FBI.
Christiansen told NewsNation that after the abuse, Maxwell allegedly threatened her and her family .
On Tuesday, the former playmate said, “The focus cannot continually shift away from the people who were harmed and toward portraying those convicted in this network as its victims.”
“Survivors deserved due process, too. We deserved investigations when we came forward. We deserved institutions that acted when warning signs were raised,” she added. “We deserved transparency, accountability, and protection from people who used wealth and power to avoid consequences.”
A document that was included in the U.S. Department of Justice release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, photographed Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, shows a U.S. passport renewal in 2012 for Ghislaine Maxwell. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
Arick Fudali, who represents 11 Epstein survivors , told NewsNation that Maxwell’s attempts are “frivolous.”
“It was apparently not enough for Ms. Maxwell that she was moved to a minimum-security resort style prison, and she has once again attempted to get her sentence and conviction overturned,” Fudali continued. “I am very pleased to see that those frivolous efforts were rejected, and I agree that her arguments were meritless.”
He added, “Ghislaine Maxwell is a convicted child sex trafficker, and she belongs behind bars for the remainder of her sentence.”
This is not the first time the convicted sex trafficker has tried to overturn her prison sentence.
In October 2025, the Supreme Court dismissed her bid to overturn the conviction. Epstein’s former girlfriend was convicted in 2021 and arrested in 2019.
In April 2025, her attorney, David Oscar Markus, wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court, “In this case, the government made a written promise that Epstein’s co-conspirators would not be prosecuted by the United States, and Maxwell was in fact prosecuted as a co-conspirator of Epstein by the United States.
He continued, “The only question is whether the government’s promise that the ‘United States’ would not prosecute her was enforceable against the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York, or only against the Southern District of Florida.”
This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. (U.S. Department of Justice via AP)
In August 2025, the Department of Justice released 16 audio recordings and four transcripts from then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s meetings with the imprisoned Maxwell on July 24 and 25.
Shortly after Maxwell’s meeting with Blanche, she was moved to a minimum- security prison , Federal Prison Camp Bryan, in Texas.
Diana Falzone is the senior national investigations reporter at NewsNation Digital, covering the federal government, warzones and top-level criminal investigations.
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