Releasing the Epstein files would harm Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid for a retrial, her lawyers have claimed.
Maxwell, a disgraced British socialite and ex-girlfriend of the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
The US Department of Justice has until mid-December to release thousands of documents linked to civil and criminal cases involving Epstein.
Donald Trump previously opposed the move, but changed his mind last month after US Congress overwhelmingly voted in favour.
After weeks of attacking Democrats and Republicans for calling for the release of the files, the US president eventually signed the Epstein Transparency Act on 20 November.
A court document filed by Maxwell’s lawyers to a New York district court on Wednesday, and seen by Sky News, shows they are planning to file a petition calling for a retrial.
Addressed to Southern District Judge Paul A Engelmayer, her lawyers say Maxwell “does not take a position regarding the government’s request to unseal the grand jury transcripts and modify the protective order” sealing them.
The grand jury transcripts refer to materials on Epstein in Florida in 2005 and 2007, which a judge denied releasing in July.
However, Maxwell’s lawyers argue the release of grand jury files from her case would “foreclose the possibility of a fair” hearing.
“Ms Maxwell respectfully notes that shortly she will be filing a habeas petition pro se [for herself],” her lawyers say in the court filing.
“Releasing the grand jury materials from her case, which contain untested and unproven allegations, would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial should Ms Maxwell’s habeas petition succeed.”
According to the US Congress’s website, a habeas corpus petition is a procedure where “a federal court may review the legality of an individual’s incarceration”.
Essentially, it is a challenge to determine whether a court proceeding was fair and lawful.
Roughly translated from Latin, the phrase means “you should have the body” – interpreted as so that a person must be able to appear before a court so that a judge can assess if that person has been lawfully detained.
It’s mentioned in Article One of the US Constitution and cannot be suspended, “unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it”.
Earlier this year, however, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Mr Trump is “actively looking at” suspending the principle in order to make it easier to detain and deport immigrants.
Maxwell was jailed in 2022 for sex trafficking after recruiting young girls for Epstein during the 1990s and early 2000s.
Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
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In October, the US Supreme Court rejected Maxwell’s attempts to appeal against her sentence.
That means a presidential pardon from Mr Trump is now her best shot at being freed before her projected release date in 2037.
Sky’s US partner NBC News reported in November that according to a whistleblower – Maxwell, 63, was planning to ask the US president to commute her sentence.
Mr Trump said in August “nobody has asked” him to pardon Maxwell, but said he had “the right to do it”.
This week, images and video of Epstein’s private Caribbean island were released by politicians in the US.
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Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said they were “a harrowing look behind Epstein’s closed doors”.
“We are releasing these photos and videos to ensure public transparency in our investigation and to help piece together the full picture of Epstein’s horrific crimes,” Representative Robert Garcia said.
The images were from Little Saint James, part of the US Virgin Islands, where the disgraced financier is believed to have abused underage girls.
