Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer asks for Donald Trump’s help: “dealmaker”

Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyer appeared to invite President Donald Trump to intervene in her Supreme Court appeal against a 20-year prison sentence over Jeffrey Epstein-related sex trafficking.

David Oscar Markus described the president as the “ultimate dealmaker” and said Trump would disagree with the Department of Justice‘s decision on Monday to oppose Maxwell’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

He also appeared to invoke a recent DOJ and FBI memo that said there was no Epstein client list and no blackmail plot by the New York financier.

Newsweek has contacted the White House and the DOJ via email outside of regular office hours.

Why It Matters

The Trump administration has come under searing pressure after senior figures like U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi invited the public to believe there were going to be major revelations on the back of a review of the Epstein files ordered by the president.

That turned into a backlash from within Trump’s MAGA base when the DOJ and the FBI then stated in a memo there would be no new investigations of uncharged third parties. Some of Epstein’s victims had said they were made to have sex with the New York financier’s powerful friends. No male associate of Epstein’s has ever been charged.

What to Know

Quoted by ABC News, Markus said in a statement that Maxwell’s prosecution breached a plea deal Epstein struck in Florida in 2008: “I’d be surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to let the government break a deal.

“He’s the ultimate dealmaker—and I’m sure he’d agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it.

“With all the talk about who’s being prosecuted and who isn’t, it’s especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the government made and broke.”

Ghislaine Maxwell pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a jury and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June 2022 on sex trafficking charges through an indictment that accused her of grooming girls for Epstein to abuse.

She appealed and the case has gone to the Supreme Court where her lawyers are arguing she should never have been prosecuted because of a plea deal Epstein struck in Florida in 2008.

He pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and the agreement included a pledge that co-conspirators would not be prosecuted.

However, that was in Florida, and more specifically in the Southern District of Florida, and both Epstein and Maxwell were later charged in New York. While awaiting trial in August 2019, Epstein died in prison, by suicide, according to New York’s chief medical examiner.

Maxwell’s lawyers argued in a court filing seen by Newsweek: “Despite the existence of a non-prosecution agreement promising in plain language that the United States would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, the United States in fact prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell as a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein.”

The government is opposing Maxwell’s appeal and said in its reply to the case: “That contention is incorrect, and petitioner does not show that it would succeed in
any court of appeals.”

The filing, signed by Trump’s solicitor general, D. John Sauer, and two other government lawyers, argues Florida did not have the authority to bind New York’s U.S. attorney’s into a non-prosecution agreement without seeking their consent first.

It also argues the plea deal sought to protect a group of specific named assistants, and Maxwell was not among those named.

What People Are Saying

The DOJ and FBI said in a memo last week: “This systematic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list.’ There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions.

“We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

Podcasters The Hodgetwins at the time wrote on X: “Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison for 20 years for sex trafficking kids with Epstein.

“And the DOJ and FBI just said that there is no client list, he didn’t blackmail nobody, and nobody else is getting charged. So they sex trafficked kids to nobody??”

Nigel Cawthorne, author of Prince Andrew: Epstein, Maxwell and the Palace, at the time told Newsweek: “That may be an argument she can use with a parole board, ‘why is she the only one who has been prosecuted?’ I think her lawyers will certainly be working on it.”

And Tim Young, media fellow for strategic communications at right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation, wrote on X: “Well then I guess Ghislaine Maxwell was trafficking children to no one? Why would she be in jail then?”

The Original Case Against Maxwell

The government’s latest filing also outlines the original allegations against Maxwell: “From about 1994 to 2004, [Maxwell] ‘coordinated, facilitated, and contributed to’ the multimillionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of numerous young women and underage girls.

“The abuse followed a pattern. [Maxwell] and Epstein would identify vulnerable girls living under difficult circumstances; isolate them from their friends and families, gaining their trust by giving them gifts and pretending to be their friends; normalize the discussion of sexual topics and sexual touching with the girls; and then ‘transition to sexual abuse, often through the pretext of [a girl] giving Epstein a massage.’

“[Maxwell] and Epstein paid victims large amounts of cash to provide Epstein with sexualized massages, and after a victim had begun giving massages, they would offer her additional money to recruit other girls.”

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.

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