Ghislaine Maxwell engaged in a “significant pattern of dishonest conduct,” enabled and participated in the abuse of multiple teenage girls, and failed to take responsibility for her crimes.
That was the assessment of the federal prosecutors who brought a criminal case against the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein and sent her to prison for 20 years.
Now, three years later — and amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files — the Department of Justice has decided to approach Maxwell, 63, to purportedly learn more about her knowledge of whether Epstein’s sex trafficking extended to people other than himself.
Ghislaine Maxwell attends VIP Evening of Conversation for Women’s Brain Health Initiative, Oct. 18, 2016, in New York.
Sylvain Gaboury/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Prosecutors’ sentencing memorandum after Maxwell’s 2021 conviction offers a frank assessment of Maxwell’s “monstrous” crimes and casts doubt on her honesty ahead of her meeting with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche later this week.
“In short, the defendant has lied repeatedly about her crimes, exhibited an utter failure to accept responsibility, and demonstrated repeated disrespect for the law and the Court,” federal prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York wrote in June 2022.
Blanche is set to meet with Maxwell in the coming days to potentially learn more information “about anyone who has committed crimes against victims.”
Ahead of the meeting, Maxwell’s appellate counsel David Oscar Markus vowed that she would “testify truthfully” and thanked President Donald Trump for his “commitment to uncovering the truth in this case.”
Maxwell continues to appeal her conviction. Her lawyers have asked the Supreme Court to throw out her case, arguing a non-prosecution agreement that Epstein made with federal prosecutors in Florida in 2007 allegedly barred her subsequent prosecution in New York more than a decade later.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks to the media in the Press Briefing Room at the White House, June 27, 2025.
Ken Cedeno/Reuters
The Trump administration asked the high court earlier this month to deny Maxwell’s petition.
In their sentencing memo in 2022, defense lawyers argued Maxwell “should not bear all the punishment for which Epstein should have been held responsible.”
“Epstein was the mastermind, Epstein was the principal abuser, and Epstein orchestrated the crimes for his personal gratification. Indeed, had Ghislaine Maxwell never had the profound misfortune of meeting Jeffrey Epstein over 30 years ago, she would not be here,” they argued.
Prosecutors said Maxwell enabled Epstein and directly participated in the abuse.
According to prosecutors, the testimony elicited at Maxwell’s trial demonstrated she was a vital participant in Epstein’s crimes, offering a veneer of respectability and trust before the convicted sex offender abused dozens of teenage girls.
She identified and preyed on vulnerable young women, groomed them to normalize their abuse and participated in the abuse — directly enabling one of the most significant sex trafficking operations in US history, prosecutors said.
“Maxwell befriended her victims, won their trust, slowly broke down their boundaries, and normalized sexual abuse,” prosecutors wrote in the the memo. “Maxwell’s victims trusted her: she was a seemingly respectable woman who showed interest in them and promised to help them. She was key to the entire operation of the scheme, and Epstein could not have committed these crimes without her.”
This undated trial evidence image obtained December 8, 2021, from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York shows British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein.
US District Court for the Southern District of New York/AFP via Getty Images
According to the government’s sentencing memorandum, Maxwell “personally engaged in sexual abuse when she fondled the breasts” of three victims. She was also “the person who was most frequently in the room when Epstein abused” one of the victims, who testified under the name Jane.
“Years of sexual abuse, multiple victims, devastating psychological harm: none of this could have happened without Maxwell,” prosecutors wrote.
Maxwell repeatedly lied to officials, prosecutors said
Prosecutors repeatedly emphasized at trial that Maxwell should not be trusted, arguing that she “engaged in a significant pattern of dishonest conduct, which speaks volumes about her character.”
They identified at least four instances in which Maxwell allegedly lied or made dishonest representations to the authorities or in civil lawsuits.
During a 2016 deposition, she said under oath that she never gave Annie Farmer, a victim who testified at trial, a massage. Farmer’s testimony at trial “established that was a lie,” prosecutors said.
She allegedly lied to court officials during an interview about her assets. When the court denied her bail application, the judge noted that Maxwell “misrepresent[ed] key facts to Pretrial Services and, by extension, the Court.”
Prosecutors said that Maxwell lied in November 2021 when she told the court, “I have not committed any crime” in response to a question about whether she engaged in plea discussions with the government.
Maxwell also falsely claimed she had no assets when she interviewed with the court’s probation office, despite having previously claimed she had $22 million in assets. She also declined to provide information about the circumstances of her marriage, prosecutors said.
“In short, the defendant decides when she wishes to disclose facts to the Court, and those facts shift when it serves the defendant’s interests,” prosecutors wrote.
Maxwell profited from relationship with Epstein, prosecutors said
Prosecutors alleged that Maxwell lived a “remarkable life of privilege” and received approximately $23 million from Epstein during the timeframe of their alleged crimes.
Maxwell also received a townhouse in New York from Epstein and benefited from his lavish lifestyle, prosecutors allege. Epstein also bequeathed her $10 million from his estate, though Maxwell has not received those funds because the estate is in probate.
“As part of a disturbing agreement with Jeffrey Epstein, Maxwell identified, groomed, and abused multiple victims, while she enjoyed a life of extraordinary luxury and privilege. In her wake, Maxwell left her victims permanently scarred with emotional and psychological injuries,” prosecutors wrote.
Maxwell deflected responsibility for her crimes, prosecutors said
At her sentencing, some of the witnesses who testified at trial urged Judge Alison Nathan to impose a severe sentence due to the harm Maxwell had caused and her apparent lack of remorse.
A witness who testified under the name Kate described Maxwell as “a manipulative, cruel and merciless person who only uses kindness to manipulate and generosity to seek recognition.”
“The lack of remorse or responsibility taken by Ghislaine for how she ruined the lives of countless women and children is exactly how we can tell that she doesn’t think what she did is wrong. She is not sorry, and she would do it again,” Kate said.
Annie Farmer asked the judge to consider the “ongoing suffering of the many women whom she abused and exploited” and how Maxwell’s inability to accept the consequences of her crimes continued to harm the victims.
“I ask you to bear in mind how Maxwell’s unwillingness to acknowledge her crimes, her lack of remorse and her repeated lies about her victims created the need for many of us to engage in a long fight for justice that has felt like a black hole sucking in our precious time, energy and well-being for much too long now, things that cannot be replaced,” Farmer said.
When Maxwell briefly addressed the court, she said that she “empathize[s] deeply with all of the victims in this case” and that meeting Epstein years earlier was her “greatest regret.”
Her lawyers have long argued that Maxwell was unfairly targeted for Epstein’s crimes after his death, and her statement at sentencing echoed that argument.
“Jeffrey Epstein should have been here before all of you. He should have stood before you all those years ago,” she said. “He should have stood before you in 2005, again in 2009, and again in 2019, all of the many times he was accused, charged, and prosecuted. But today it is not about Epstein ultimately. It is for me to be sentenced and for the victims to address me, and me alone, in this court.”
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous contributed to this report.
