Maxwell's Latest Bid to Overturn Conviction

0:00It's April 22nd. Welcome in. This is California News today, where local news meets AI. Galein Maxwell, the close associate of Jeffrey Epstein, is making another push to throw out her sex trafficking conviction. She's serving a 20-year prison sentence right now for helping recruit and groom under-eight girls for Epstein's abuse. Just this week, she filed a new motion herself with a federal judge in New York. News got her request in a FedEx package, marked April 16th, 2026, complete with a USB drive, full of her arguments, and exhibits. They say it overlaps with her earlier motions that courts shot down back in 2024, and even the Supreme Court passed on her final appeal. Maxwell has tried every direct appeal route and come up empty, so she went with the habeas petition last December, claiming fresh evidence. She's argued before that her trial wasn't fair, that Epstein's 2008 plea deal should protect her, and that grooming claims were too vague to stick.

1:02This latest filing follows a judge is okay in February to amend that petition, after the Justice Department dropped more Epstein files. Her conviction nailed her for a scheme targeting girls as young as 14, luring them into sexual massages that turned abusive. In a recent interview, Maxwell cleared President Trump, saying she saw nothing sketchy from him. With Epstein gone by suicide in 2019, her legal fight drags on, we'll keep watching how the judge rules next.