Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted as an accomplice to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has petitioned a judge to overturn her conviction, arguing that new evidence indicates she did not receive a fair trial.

Maxwell, who had a long association with Epstein, has filed a habeas corpus petition, representing herself in this legal challenge. Although such attempts are typically difficult to succeed, a favorable outcome could potentially lead to a retrial.

She claims the fresh evidence emerged from lawsuits involving the FBI, various financial institutions, and Epstein’s estate. This includes sworn depositions, released documents, and other verified sources, which she argues demonstrate that crucial evidence supporting her innocence was withheld, false testimony was introduced, and key facts were misrepresented to the jury and court.

“The cumulative effect of these constitutional violations constitutes a complete miscarriage of justice, rendering Petitioner’s conviction invalid, unsafe, and infirm,” Maxwell stated in her filing.

Currently, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence following her conviction for conspiring with Epstein to sexually exploit underage girls.

Her challenge comes a week after a federal judge granted the Trump administration’s request to publicly release scores of records from her sex-trafficking case, after the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 

The law, signed by President Trump last month, directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to make public Epstein-related records by Friday, in a format that is searchable.  

Maxwell did not take a position on the government’s request to unseal the materials. However, her legal challenge could throw a wrench into DOJ’s plan to release the documents.  

Her lawyer wrote in a letter to the court earlier this month that exposing long-secret grand jury materials could imperil the retrial she now is seeking, asserting that “untested and unproven allegations” in the documents would create “undue prejudice so severe” it would prevent any hope of fairness.  

It could give Attorney General Pam Bondi some pause. The Epstein Files Transparency Act allows her to withhold certain records if publishing them could jeopardize active criminal cases.  

Maxwell has exhausted all of her direct appeals, prompting her gamble Wednesday. 

She raises nine primary grounds for relief in her new challenge, saying that “no reasonable juror would have convicted her” had they had access to the evidence she purports was suppressed or newly discovered.  

The claims include alleged juror misconduct, mischaracterizations of evidence, private attorneys functioning as de facto prosecutors and the decades-long delay between her alleged conduct and indictment.

Another addresses the non-prosecution agreement between the government and Epstein that was central to her Supreme Court challenge, which was turned away by the justices.  

And she claimed that she has been treated more harshly than other prisoners, detailing alleged mistreatment in jail from solitary confinement to assault.  

“No other similarly situated remand inmates with no criminal history facing similar charges were similarly treated,” Maxwell wrote, noting that “P Diddy,” the stage name for rapper Sean Combs, who was convicted on prostitution-related charges, was placed in general population. 

“Petitioners’ treatment was in direct response to Epstein’s death at MCC,” she added. 

The Epstein case returned to public discourse after the Justice Department and FBI issued a joint memo this summer confirming Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and that he did not have a “client list.”  

It sparked furor among Trump’s political base, which has long called for greater transparency about Epstein.  

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former defense attorney, interviewed Maxwell about the case in response to the outcry, after which she was transferred from a federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security women’s prison in Texas. 

The administration has also since moved to investigate Epstein’s past ties to prominent Democrats and institutions, despite saying in its memo earlier this year that a “systematic review” did not uncover any evidence on which charges against “uncharged third parties” could be based. 

Democrats, meanwhile, released emails last month showing Epstein in 2019 telling associates that “of course” Trump knew about his relationships with underage girls. 

Federal judges previously denied DOJ’s efforts to release the documents but caved after more recent requests cited the new law.  

U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who oversees Maxwell’s criminal case, wrote in his order to unseal the documents that the government’s motion “misled victims —and the public at large — in holding out the Maxwell grand jury materials as essential to the goal of ‘transparency to the American public,’ when in fact the grand jury materials would not add to public knowledge.”

—Updated at 5:33 p.m. EST