
Ghislaine Maxwell's family hint at using ‘new evidence' in shock bid to FREE her… as MAGA civil war erupts over Epstein
Maxwell, 63, was found guilty in December 2021 of luring young girls to massage rooms for paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein to molest them between 1994 and 2004.
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She was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the federal court in the southern district of New York (SDNY) in June 2022.
Maxwell's family has suggested that "government misconduct" could be used as new evidence to challenge her imprisonment.
The family argue that Maxwell should have been protected under an agreement Epstein entered with the Department of Justice in 2007 - in which they vowed not to prosecute any of his co-conspirators after he "paid fines to victims".
He family has frequently claimed she "did not receive a fair trial".
Although legal appeals against her sex trafficking convictions have been rejected by the courts.
In a statement, the disgraced socialite's family said: "Our sister Ghislaine did not receive a fair trial.
"Her legal team continues to fight her case in the courts and will file its reply in short order to the government's opposition in the US Supreme Court.
"If necessary, in due course they will also file a writ of habeas corpus in the US district court, SDNY.
"This allows her to challenge her imprisonment on the basis of new evidence such as government misconduct that would have likely changed the trial's outcome."
Judges previously dismissed her lawyers' arguments that she "should never have been prosecuted" because of a "weird" agreement drafted more than 15 years ago - concluding that the Florida agreement "does not bind" the United States Attorney's Office for the SDNY.
The US Justice Department has reportedly written to the Supreme Court to ask a judge to further deny Maxwell's appeal against her convictions.
During her three-week trial in 2021, jurors heard prosecutors describe Maxwell as "dangerous", and were told details of how she helped entice vulnerable teenagers to Epstein's various properties for him to sexually abuse.
It comes as The Sun on Sunday exclusively revealed that Maxwell was seeking a pardon from Donald Trump.
Her legal team believes the former socialite has a 'window of momentum' after the Jeffrey Epstein inquiry was brought to an abrupt close in the US.
A source said: "Those close to her believe it's unfair that she alone is paying for Epstein's crimes and call into question much of the evidence against her.
'Now her legal team feel as if they have a rare window of momentum so they are set to take up her case with the President."
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MAGA CIVIL WAR
Trump's MAGA camp has been left divided over a lack of clarity regarding the release of the hyped files in Epstein's sex trafficking investigation.
The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and FBI's decision to close the Epstein inquiry has sparked fury among Trump's base.
DoJ last week announced that Epstein died by suicide - although conspiracy theories are to the contrary.
They added that there was no 'incriminating client list' to be revealed to the public - and no further revelations would be made regarding the case.
US Attorney General Pam Bondi had suggested in February that Epstein's supposed client list was sitting on her desk waiting for review.
Though last week she appeared to suggest she'd been referring generally to the Epstein case file, not a client list.
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Bondi said: "I did an interview on Fox, and it's been getting a lot of attention because I said I was asked a question about the client list, and my response was, it's sitting on my desk to be reviewed.
"Meaning the file, along with the JFK, MLK files as well. That's what I meant by that."
Meanwhile, Trump insisted the much-hyped documents are "pretty boring" amid a slew of conspiracies surrounding the death of Epstein - and his so-called client list.
Many within Trump's MAGA movement allege that the files about the paedophile's crimes have been withheld to protect big names.
Last night, Trump said the DoJ should release all "credible" information from its probe into the notorious sex criminal.
Though he repeated his claim that the so-called Epstein files were "made up" by his Democratic predecessors in the White House - even though he said multiple times during the election campaign that he would "probably" release them.
He told reporters in the White House: "I don't understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody.
"It's pretty boring stuff."
THE 'EPSTEIN FILES'
One key theory centres on a rumoured client list of individuals who committed sex offences alongside Epstein.
The Trump administration has insisted that no such list exists.
Trump was himself dragged into the conspiracy theories after his former advisor Elon Musk claimed in June -- in a now-deleted X post -- that Trump was "in the Epstein files".
His administration's efforts to appease demands for a full disclosure of the files have largely fallen short.
A bundle released in February that promised to shed light on the Epstein case contained little new information.
Sceptics also allege suspicious circumstances in Epstein's death, such as the security cameras around his cell apparently malfunctioning on the night he died, alongside other irregularities.
An almost 11-hour video published this month to dispel theories that Epstein was murdered fell flat.
The camera angle showed a section of the New York prison on the night Epstein died - but appeared to be missing a minute of footage, fueling more speculation online.
Bondi explained that the lost minute in the footage - which occurs at 11.59pm - was due to the prison's outdated system.
The missing minute happens at 11.59pm - with the time switching from 11.58.59pm to midnight.
Bondi said: "There was a minute that was off the counter, and what we learned from the Bureau of Prisons is every night they redo that video… every night should have the same minute missing."
A memo from the Justice Department and FBI last week saying the Epstein files did not contain evidence that would justify further investigation was met by calls for the heads of each agency to resign.
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Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Ghislaine Maxwell to make 'mafia-like' deal with Trump amid fallout over Epstein files
The Trump administration has orchestrated a high-stakes jailhouse sit down with convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell amid the ongoing fallout over their handling of the Epstein files. A top Justice Department official confirmed he will personally meet with Maxwell as she serves her 20-year sentence at a federal prison in Florida for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. The 'mafia-style' negotiation could mean a reprieve for Maxwell as Trump looks to put an end to the torrent of speculation surrounding his history with the billionaire pedophile. 'She's going to make a deal,' attorney and Epstein associate Alan Dershowitz told The New York Post. 'That's the way things are done. They make deals with the mafia, so I'm certain they are going to try to make a deal with her.' The onetime Epstein lawyer called Maxwell the 'Rosetta stone' of the Epstein saga, hinting that more secrets could be revealed. 'She knows everything - not just about the perpetrators but the victims,' he said. 'And she knows about the victims who became perpetrators.' Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche confirmed on Tuesday that negotiations were already underway with Maxwell's attorneys. 'If Ghislaine Maxwell has information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims, the FBI and the DOJ will hear what she has to say,' Blanche said. 'I have communicated with counsel for Ms. Maxwell to determine whether she would be willing to speak with prosecutors from the Department. I anticipate meeting with Ms. Maxwell in the coming days.' The meeting could mark the first time federal prosecutors hear Maxwell's full version of events, after years of silence and failed appeals. 'Ghislaine will always testify truthfully,' Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Markus, said. 'We are grateful to President Trump for his commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.' It remains to be seen, however, whether the Justice Department will ask Maxwell to testify and whether new evidence will yield any prosecutions. MAGA supporters have been demanding that Trump be more transparent about the Epstein files after he campaigned on making all the information public. Legal experts, including Dershowitz, have cast doubt on the usefulness of grand jury transcripts, urging the DOJ instead to release FBI interview notes from Epstein's victims. Court filings previously revealed that some of Epstein's more than 1,000 identified victims were groomed to recruit others - a chilling tactic that created a web of silence and complicity that prosecutors have struggled to untangle since Epstein's death in 2019. Maxwell's reemergence comes at a critical moment. Earlier this year, the Justice Department and FBI raided Epstein's former properties, collecting what they described as 'voluminous materials.' But just weeks later, they released a joint memo dismissing long-running conspiracy theories, stating there was 'no incriminating client list' and no evidence of blackmail. That walk-back sparked outrage among Trump's base, especially after Attorney General Pam Bondi had previously promised to release 'a lot of names' and 'a lot of flight logs.' MAGA supporters were particularly enraged that no new material was produced in the Epstein files review and that Trump's DOJ found no existence of a so-called 'client list' of high profile co-conspirators. The president even started calling the whole ordeal the 'Epstein hoax' and claimed Democrats were to blame for stoking conspiracies in an effort to divide Republicans. Now, under pressure, the administration reversed course. 'President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence,' Blanche wrote on social media, before asking a federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts from both Epstein's and Maxwell's cases. The judges in charge - Richard Berman and Paul Engelmayer - have ordered the DOJ to submit its arguments by July 29, and have given Maxwell, a representative of Epstein's estate, and the victims until August 5 to file their responses. Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said he supports the outreach. 'I think it would be something - sounds appropriate to do, yeah,' he told reporters. The president has called parts of the Epstein scandal a 'hoax,' and has publicly criticized his own supporters who have become fixated on the idea of a government cover-up. But he has also told Bondi and Blanche to pursue all legitimate evidence. Just last week, the DOJ opposed Maxwell's request to have the Supreme Court review her case, with her lawyers claiming she should have never been charged because of a 2008 plea deal the courts struck with Epstein. But Maxwell's team has now hinted she may be ready to cooperate now that most of her appeals have failed. Maxwell's journey from international socialite to inmate has been as dramatic as it is disturbing. Once a fixture of British high society and New York elite circles, she rubbed shoulders with royalty, billionaires, and political power players. After her father, media tycoon Robert Maxwell, died in 1991 under suspicious circumstances, Ghislaine found herself under the wing of Epstein - eventually becoming his confidante, girlfriend, and accomplice. In court, four women testified that Maxwell groomed them as teenagers for Epstein and, at times, participated in the abuse herself. She was convicted in 2021 on charges of sex trafficking, conspiracy, and transporting a minor for illegal sexual activity. She did not testify at her trial, but gave two depositions in earlier civil cases, in which she denied wrongdoing and accused Epstein's most vocal accusers of fabricating stories. Her brother, Ian Maxwell, who has publicly defended her since her 2020 arrest, claimed this week that the infamous 'client list' is a myth. 'I don't think it constitutes a list of alleged people to whom young minor girls were trafficked,' he told Piers Morgan Uncensored. 'Ghislaine's position has been: she doesn't believe such a list existed.' Ian also warned of the danger Maxwell faces behind bars. 'Prisons are very dangerous places,' he said. 'We know from Ghislaine that there are serious staff shortages and more dangerous higher-risk-category prisoners now being admitted.' Maxwell's legal team has long argued that she should never have been prosecuted, citing the 2007 non-prosecution agreement Epstein signed in Florida, which extended immunity to his co-conspirators. But federal prosecutors in New York successfully argued that the deal did not apply outside Florida, and moved forward with the case that ultimately led to her conviction.


The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: US House breaks early for summer recess as Republicans feel the heat over Epstein
Mounting pressure over President Donald Trump's alleged ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has reportedly rattled and divided Republican congress members so deeply that the House speaker called an early recess on Tuesday. Democrats had pushed for a vote to release files related to Epstein as Trump fends off questions over his relationship with the financier, who died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019. Now the House will break up on Wednesday instead of Thursday in what Democrats say is a way to dodge the vote. Here's the what's happened today: Republicans downplayed the decision to cut short the workweek, while arguing that the White House has already moved to resolve questions about the case. Last week, Trump asked the attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release grand jury testimony, although that is expected to be only a fraction of the case's documents. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, dismissed the calls for a vote as 'political games' and also argued that Congress must be careful in calling for the release of documents related to the case, for fear of retraumatizing his victims. Read the full story Congress will subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned sex trafficker who was a close associate of Epstein, to testify amid a political firestorm over the Trump administration's decision not to release its remaining Epstein files. Read the full story Trump has claimed the future owner of the US TV network CBS will provide him with $20m worth of advertising and programming – days after the network cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The US president recently reached a $16m settlement with Paramount, the parent of CBS News, over what he claimed was misleading editing of a pre-election interview with the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris. Read the full story The US will quit the United Nations' culture and education agency Unesco, the US state department has said, as Donald Trump continues to pull out of international institutions. The move is a blow to the Paris-based global organization, founded after the second world war to promote peace through international cooperation in education, science and culture. Read the full story Barack Obama has broken his silence on calls from Trump for him to be prosecuted by unequivocally rejecting his successor's accusations that he tried to engineer a 'coup' after Trump's 2016 election victory by 'manufacturing' evidence of Russian interference. His office called the accusations 'nonsense', 'misinformation', 'outrageous' and 'a weak attempt at distraction'. Read the full story Trump has announced a trade deal with Japan, potentially resolving weeks of fraught negotiations between the two allies which had caused political uproar and economic uncertainty in Tokyo. While he gave few details of the deal, he described it as 'massive' in a social media post, adding that 'Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States.' Read the full story Coca-Cola has announced it will launch a product made with US cane sugar this year, days after Trump claimed the company had agreed to replace high-fructose corn syrup. But the company said that the drink would be an additional product rather than a replacement for the drink containing corn syrup. Read the full story General Motors announced that Donald Trump's tariffs knocked $1.1bn off its operating income in its last quarter. The New York Times defended the Wall Street Journal after the Trump administration decided to bar the outlet from the White House press pool. Stephen Colbert declared to Donald Trump that 'the gloves are off' in his first broadcast since his Late Show was cancelled amid a political firestorm. Catching up? Here's what happened on 21 July 2025.

Rhyl Journal
3 hours ago
- Rhyl Journal
British man convicted of trying to spy for Russian intelligence service
Howard Phillips, 65, from Harlow, Essex, intended to help two apparent Russian agents called 'Sasha' and 'Dima', including by passing on personal information about former defence secretary Sir Grant Shapps, helping with travel logistics and booking hotels. But 'Dima' and 'Sasha' were in fact undercover British intelligence officers, Winchester Crown Court previously heard. A jury found Phillips guilty of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act on Tuesday, following a two-week trial at the same court. The jury reached a unanimous verdict after four hours and four minutes of deliberations. Phillips, wearing a dark suit and tie, silently shook his head in the dock as the verdict was given. Prosecutors said Phillips intended to assist Russian agents from the end of 2023 until May last year. Phillips offered to pass on Sir Grant's contact details as well as the location where he kept his private plane in order to 'facilitate the Russians in listening on British defence plans', the trial heard. He was heard telling the men he wanted to work for Russia in exchange for financial independence from the UK. The defendant's ex-wife, Amanda Phillips, told the court during the trial that he 'would dream about being like James Bond', and that he watched films to do with MI5 and MI6 as he was 'infatuated with it'. Mrs Phillips told the court she was aware the defendant had applied for a job at the UK Border Force in October 2023, which prosecutors said was part of his bid to assist Russia's intelligence service. Phillips previously claimed he had contacted the Russian embassy in early 2024 in a bid to track and expose Russian agents to assist Israel. He told jurors he ascertained 'from the onset' that 'Dima' and 'Shasha' were 'definitely not Russian' and were undercover individuals, but that he carried on 'playing a role' around these agents in order to 'test the waters'. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb remanded Phillips in custody and adjourned sentencing to the 'earliest available date' in the autumn. The judge said she wanted a full pre-sentence report on the defendant ahead of sentencing as the conviction was for a 'relatively new' offence. Addressing the jurors, she said: 'Thank you very much for the important work that you have done on this very important case. 'We are trying, as a system, to get to the right answers in these situations.' Officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command arrested Phillips in central London on May 16 last year, after he travelled to the capital for a meeting with the two apparent Russian agents. Detective Chief Superintendent Helen Flanagan said: 'Phillips was unemployed and his primary motivation for wanting to become a spy for the Russian Intelligence Service was financial reward. 'His conviction should act as stark warning to anyone who thinks that carrying out illegal activity on behalf of a foreign state is an attractive or easy way to earn money. 'The reality is that we take this kind of activity extremely seriously. 'Those involved will be identified, investigated and, like Phillips, will face extremely serious consequences when they are convicted. 'This case is also another successful use of the National Security Act to prosecute someone who was attempting to undermine the security of the UK and we will continue to use these powers available to us to help keep the public safe.' Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's counter terrorism division, said: 'This conviction sends a clear message to anyone considering spying for or assisting Russia. 'Howard Phillips clearly outlined the services he was willing to provide for a hostile state. From gaining employment within the civil service and applying for security clearance, to providing the personal details of the Secretary of State for Defence – Phillips was brazen in his pursuit for financial gain and unbothered about the potential detriment to his own country. 'It is a criminal offence to assist a foreign intelligence service, regardless of your motive or whether or not you succeed. 'We will always seek to prosecute anyone who poses a threat to the UK.'