NEW YORK (Reuters) – Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell say their client, convicted of helping late US financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually assault teenage girls, should spend less than 20 years in prison, and possibly much less, arguing that the businessman was the “mastermind” behind these abuses.
Ghislaine Maxwell, 60, “cannot and should not bear the full sentence for which Epstein should have been held responsible,” her lawyers wrote in a memorandum filed in Manhattan federal court.
Last December, a federal jury in Manhattan found Maxwell guilty of five counts, including trafficking in minors.
Judge Alison Nathan, who presided over the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell before being promoted, is due to hand down the sentence on June 28. Prosecutors will submit their recommendation by June 22.
Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell noted in a statement Wednesday that she had previously spent time behind bars ‘in conditions far more onerous and punitive than those experienced by a typical remand prisoner’
“Her life has been ruined. Since Epstein’s death, her life has been threatened and death threats continue while she is incarcerated. It would be a travesty of justice for her to face a sentence that would have been appropriate. for Epstein,” they wrote.
Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell said these and other factors warrant a departure from federal sentencing guidelines of 292 to 365 months in prison, and the 20-month sentence. years recommended by the probation service.
In a separate statement, Ghislaine Maxwell said her crimes warranted no more than 5-1/4 years in prison under federal guidelines. Prosecutors are likely to reject that calculation, and the judge will decide who is right.
A spokesperson for Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Report Luc Cohen, French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)
