By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Ghislaine Maxwell on Tuesday urged a U.S. judge to throw out the criminal case alleging she procured four teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse, accusing prosecutors of overreaching in an effort to “get” her.
In a filing in Manhattan federal court, Maxwell’s lawyers said prosecutors waited too long to add allegations by the fourth accuser in an amended indictment filed in March, despite knowing of the allegations for more than a decade.
They also said some charges were covered by Epstein’s 2007 non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors, which Maxwell has unsuccessfully argued also immunized “potential” co-conspirators like herself.
The new indictment “demonstrates just how far the government is willing to go to ‘get’ Ms. Maxwell and disingenuously blame her for the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” Maxwell’s lawyers said.
Spokesmen for U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss in Manhattan declined to comment.
Epstein, a financier, killed himself in a Manhattan jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges in an eight-count indictment related to Epstein’s alleged abuse of three girls from 1994 to 1997, and a fourth girl from 2001 to 2004.
Prosecutors said Maxwell groomed and paid the fourth girl who, starting at age 14, gave Epstein nude massages and engaged in sex acts with him, and recruited others for erotic massages.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan previously denied Maxwell’s request to dismiss an earlier version of the indictment, and will consider the latest dismissal request.
The 59-year-old Maxwell has been jailed in Brooklyn since her arrest last July. Nathan has denied bail three times, saying Maxwell was a flight risk.
A trial on six charges in the latest indictment is slated to begin in November. Two perjury charges would be tried separately.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell)
