Ghislaine Maxwell bid for retrial deniedon April 1, 2022 at 10:19 pm

A US judge has upheld Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex trafficking conviction, denying her bid for a new trial.

Maxwell, 60, had complained that one of the jurors falsely stated before the trial that he had never been sexually abused.

Her lawyers argued the fact the juror had been abused in the past meant he could not be impartial.

Maxwell was convicted in December last year of trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein.

She faces up to 65 years in prison, but maintains her innocence. Epstein killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

On Friday, US Circuit Judge Alison Nathan said the juror, referred to as Juror 50 in court papers, testified truthfully at a hearing in March over Maxwell’s bid for a retrial.

“His failure to disclose his prior sexual abuse during the jury selection process was highly unfortunate, but not deliberate,” the judge said.

“The court further concludes that Juror 50 harboured no bias toward the defendant and could serve as a fair and impartial juror.”

The juror in question was earlier given immunity from prosecution. He had asked to be identified by his first and middle names, Scotty David.

When asked why he failed to disclose his past in the jury questionnaire when explicitly asked, he said it was an “inadvertent mistake.”

“This is one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my life,” he added, saying he “flew through” the document and was “super-distracted” by everything going on around him in the jury room.

After Maxwell’s conviction, he had told reporters that he had shared his own experience of sexual abuse with jurors after some had questioned the recollections from two of Maxwell’s accusers.

This admission immediately prompted Maxwell’s lawyers to demand a retrial.