Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers request new trial in sex trafficking case

Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers have filed a motion for a new trial, just weeks after she was convicted of recruiting underage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse.

In a court filing, the Briton's lawyers said they requested a new trial after a juror allegedly failed to disclose that they had been sexually abused as children before the trial.

“For the reasons set forth in the Motion, we request that all submissions relating to Juror #50 remain under seal until the Court rules on the Motion,” attorney Bobbi C Sternheim wrote in a letter to to Judge Alison Nathan.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted last month of sex trafficking and other charges for recruiting and grooming underage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004. Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a New York jail while awaiting his own trial on sex trafficking charges. .

Days after the verdict, one of the jurors shared his experience of childhood abuse after other jurors expressed skepticism about the accounts of two of Maxwell's accusers.

The revelations by the juror, named in media reports as Scotty David, raised concerns that he did not disclose his abuse during the pre-trial screening period.

The process, known as “voir dire”, aims to exclude candidates due to possible bias and allows both sides multiple “preliminary challenges” to exclude a juror who they believe may be biased. .

Mr. David claimed to have “read through” the questionnaire. He said he did not remember a question about his personal experiences of sexual abuse, but would have answered honestly.

Earlier this month, Maxwell's lawyers wrote to the judge saying this “presents compelling grounds for a new trial.”

The prosecution will have until February 2 to respond to the motion filed by Maxwell's legal team.

Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison for his conviction.

She also faces trial on two counts of perjury or allegedly lying about her knowledge of Epstein's behavior during a deposition in a civil case. A trial date for perjury has not yet been set.