Maxwell’s family to appeal verdict

I am confident of the strong grounds for appeal both legal and evidential and that my sister will be vindicated. Ian Maxwell

Ghislaine Maxwell’s family have told The Daily Telegraph they plan to appeal her guilty verdict on the grounds she was “denied” a fair trial, but legal experts warn the chances of success are slim.

Ian Maxwell, Ghislaine’s older brother, said the family still believes she is innocent after a New York jury found her guilty this week on five counts of trafficking teenage girls to be sexually abused by her former boyfriend, Jeffrey Epstein.

The 65-year-old businessman, who travelled from his home near Oxford to join his other siblings for part of the four-week trial, said prosecutors had manipulated the media to brand Ghislaine as the “most hated woman in the world”.

“US First Amendment rights are in clear conflict with a defendant’s rights to a fair trial. The USA has no equivalent of contempt of court, no guidelines of any description to prevent overt media manipulation by both the prosecuting authorities and the highly paid lawyers who represented both accusers in court and also the accusers who did not appear in court to have their allegations questioned,” he said.

Maxwell also said the prison conditions in a Brooklyn federal jail had prevented her from being able to testify in her own defence.

“I am confident of the strong grounds for appeal both legal and evidential and that my sister will be vindicated and ultimately found innocent.”

However Lisa Bloom, who represents a number of Maxwell and Epstein’s accusers, did not see “any chance” of Maxwell’s legal team successfully appealing and said she would have risked perjuring herself should she have taken the stand.

“I read her deposition testimony in prior civil cases and she’s a terrible witness — she’s arrogant, she argues with the attorneys, she refuses to answer the questions. She’s not the kind of witness any attorney would want to put on the stand,” she told the BBC.

Maxwell’s lead attorney, Bobbi Sternheim, told reporters on the steps of the Thurgood Marshall courthouse after the verdict that her legal team planned to appeal, without going into specific legal grounds.

The British socialite, who turned 60 last weekend, would have several potential avenues.

It is possible they could look to claim the jury was unduly pressured by US District Judge Alison Nathan to return a fast verdict as the threat of Omicron hung over deliberations.

To succeed in any appeal, however, the team would need to show Judge Nathan abused her discretion or violated rules of evidence.

“It will be a difficult task for the defence to win on appeal,” said Julie Rendelman, a New York appeals attorney.

“Judge Nathan worked very hard to seat an impartial jury, and the defendant received a fair trial.”

Neama Rahmani, the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor, did not believe Maxwell had legal basis to appeal, but that he expected she would anyway.

“She’s going to appeal because otherwise she’s going to die in federal prison.”

Maxwell is still facing a separate trial on two perjury counts. No date had been set.