The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not take up a bid by Ghislaine Maxwell to overturn her 2021 conviction for sex trafficking.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not take up a bid by Ghislaine Maxwell to overturn her 2021 conviction and 20-year prison sentence for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minor girls with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell’s appeal to the high court attracted added attention this summer as the Trump administration came under pressure to release more material related to the Justice Department’s investigation into Epstein, who died in federal custody in 2019. Congress also opened its own examination of the federal probe and has obtained and released thousands of pages of records related to Epstein, though many were already in the public domain.
Senior Justice Department officials unsuccessfully petitioned a federal court in New York to unseal grand jury material in Epstein’s case, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell in Tallahassee, Florida, in July to discuss her relationship with Epstein and the allegations against her.
The Supreme Court’s rejection of Maxwell’s case means her conviction and sentence will remain intact, barring a presidential pardon.
At the heart of Maxwell’s appeal is a 2007 nonprosecution agreement between the U.S. attorney in Miami and Epstein, which she argued barred her prosecution for sex-trafficking violations.
Epstein’s lawyers and then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta entered into the deal after a federal investigation into allegations Epstein engaged in sexual abuse of underage girls. In exchange for avoiding federal charges, Epstein agreed to plead guilty to two state prostitution charges and serve an 18-month prison sentence.
The agreement specified that if Epstein fulfilled all of its terms, he would not be prosecuted «in this district», the Southern District of Florida. It also contained a so-called co-conspirators clause, which stated that if Epstein satisfied the deal’s conditions, the U.S. would «not institute any criminal char[g]es against any potential co-conspirator of Epstein, including but not limited to» four of his assistants.
A Justice Department official in West Palm Beach later told the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility the provision was «highly unusual», and a former prosecutor who handled the case said she didn’t consider that Epstein may have been trying to protect anyone other than his four assistants, according to court records.
Acosta went on to serve as labor secretary during Mr. Trump’s first term, but he resigned in 2019 amid scrutiny of his handling of the nonprosecution agreement with Epstein. He stepped down shortly after Epstein was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in New York. Epstein died by suicide while awaiting trial.
Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein’s, was indicted in New York in 2020 and charged with several criminal offenses arising out of her scheme with Epstein. She attempted to dismiss the indictment, arguing that the co-conspirators clause in Epstein’s nonprosecution agreement prohibited her prosecution because she was charged as his co-conspirator.
A federal district court rejected Maxwell’s effort, finding that the deal bound only the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida. It also ruled that most of the charges would’ve fallen outside the scope of the agreement even if it covered the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York.
Maxwell’s trial proceeded, and she was found guilty in 2021. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Maxwell had been serving her sentence at a federal correctional facility in Tallahassee, but she was moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after meeting with Blanche, the deputy attorney general, in July.
She appealed her conviction and sentence on several grounds, including that the nonprosecution deal barred her prosecution. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rejected her claims, ruling that «nothing in the text of the NPA precluded» the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan from bringing charges against Maxwell.
Maxwell asked the Supreme Court to take up her case in April, arguing that the co-conspirator clause contained no «geographic limitation» on where it could be enforced. Her lawyers said in a filing that a decision from the Supreme Court should ensure that plea deals are enforced consistently throughout the country, «so that when the United States makes a promise in a plea agreement, it is held to that promise.»
But the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court not to reconsider Maxwell’s conviction and sentence. It noted that Justice Department policy at the time the deal was negotiated prohibited U.S. attorneys from entering into agreements that bound other districts unless they received written approval from those districts or the head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
«There is no indication here that anyone involved in negotiating Epstein’s NPA obtained the necessary approval for binding other USAOs or thought it was necessary», Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in a filing.

Illinois and Chicago have filed a lawsuit aiming to stop Trump from sending hundreds of National Guard troops to Chicago. Trump moved to deploy the National Guard in another city on Saturday by authorizing 300 troops to protect federal officers and assets in Chicago.
Illinois and Chicago filed a lawsuit Monday aiming to stop President Donald Trump’s administration from sending hundreds of National Guard troops to the city, just as troops prepared to deploy and hours after a federal judge blocked troops from being sent to Portland, Oregon.
The quickly unfolding developments come as the administration portrays the Democrat-led cities as war-ravaged and lawless and amid Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Officials in both cities have disputed the president’s characterizations, saying military intervention isn’t needed and it’s federal involvement that’s inflaming the situation.
The legal challenge comes after Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said some 300 of the state’s guard troops were to be federalized and deployed to the nation’s third-largest city, along with 400 others from Texas.
The lawsuit alleges that “these advances in President Trump’s long-declared ‘War’ on Chicago and Illinois are unlawful and dangerous.”
“The American people, regardless of where they reside, should not live under the threat of occupation by the United States military, particularly not simply because their city or state leadership has fallen out of a president’s favor,” the lawsuit says.
Pritzker said the potential deployment amounted to “Trump’s invasion” and called on Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to block it. Abbott pushed back and said the crackdown was needed to protect federal workers who are in the city as part of the president’s increased immigration enforcement.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson confirmed in a weekend statement that Trump authorized using Illinois National Guard members, citing what she called “ongoing violent riots and lawlessness” that local leaders have not quelled.
In Chicago, the sight of armed Border Patrol agents making arrests near famous landmarks amplified concerns from residents already uneasy after an immigration crackdown that began last month. Agents have targeted immigrant-heavy and largely Latino areas.
Protesters have frequently rallied near an immigration facility outside the city, and federal officials reported the arrests of 13 protesters on Friday near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility in Broadview.
The Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that federal agents shot a woman Saturday morning on the southwest side of Chicago. A department statement said it happened after Border Patrol agents patrolling the area “were rammed by vehicles and boxed in by 10 cars.”
No law enforcement officers were seriously injured, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said.
In Portland, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut granted a temporary restraining order sought by Oregon and California to block the deployment of guard troops from those states to the city.
There has been a sustained and low-level protest outside the Portland ICE facility, but it’s been less disruptive than the downtown clashes of 2020 when demonstrations erupted after George Floyd’s killing.
Immergut, a first-term Trump appointee, seemed incredulous that the president moved to send National Guard troops to Oregon from neighboring California and then from Texas on Sunday.
“Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” she said. “Why is this appropriate?”
Local officials have suggested that many of the president’s claims and social media posts about Portland appear to rely on images from 2020. Under a new mayor, the city has reduced crime, and downtown has seen fewer homeless encampments and increased foot traffic.
Most violent crime around the U.S. has actually declined in recent years, including in Portland, where a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has sent or talked about sending troops to 10 cities, including Baltimore; Memphis, Tennessee; the District of Columbia; New Orleans; and the California cities of Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
A federal judge in September said the administration “willfully” broke federal law by deploying guard troops to Los Angeles over protests about immigration raids.

The Kremlin welcomed Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the U.S., saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive.
The Kremlin on Monday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about Russia’s offer to extend the last remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States, saying it raises hope for keeping the pact alive after it expires in February.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared his readiness to adhere to nuclear arms limits under the 2010 New START arms reduction treaty for one more year, and he urged Washington to follow suit. When asked about the proposal, Trump said Sunday it “sounds like a good idea to me.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed Trump’s statement, noting that “it gives grounds for optimism that the United States will support President Putin’s initiative.”
While offering to extend the New START agreement, Putin said its expiration would be destabilizing and could fuel proliferation of nuclear weapons. He also argued that maintaining limits on nuclear weapons could also be an important step in “creating an atmosphere conducive to substantive strategic dialogue with the U.S.”
The Russian leader reaffirmed the offer Thursday, noting that Russia and the U.S. could use the one-year extension to work on a possible successor pact.
Such an agreement will involve complex talks that could deal with battlefield nuclear weapons and prospective strategic weapons systems that Russia has developed, Putin said.
“We haven’t forgotten about anything that we have planned, the work is ongoing and it will produce results,” he declared at a forum of international foreign policy experts.
He mentioned the longtime U.S. push for including China in any prospective nuclear arms control pact but emphasized that it’s up to Washington to try to persuade Beijing to do so. China has rejected the idea, arguing that its nuclear arsenals are far smaller than those of the U.S. and Russia.
Putin also argued that the nuclear arsenals of NATO members Britain and France should be included in a prospective agreement.
He noted at the forum that some in the U.S. oppose New START’s extension, and “if they don’t need it, we don’t need it either. We feel confident about our nuclear shield.”
Putin’s offer came at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West, with concerns rising that fighting in Ukraine could spread beyond its borders.
The New START, signed by then-U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers. The pact also stipulates the need for on-site inspections to verify compliance, although inspections were halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and never resumed.
The treaty was originally supposed to expire in 2021 but was extended for five years.
Arms control advocates long have voiced concern about the treaty’s looming expiration and the lack of dialogue to secure a successor deal, warning of the possibility of a new nuclear arms race and the increased risk of a nuclear conflict.
The Associated Press receives support for nuclear security coverage from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and Outrider Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Paramount announced Monday that it has bought the successful news commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
Paramount said Monday that it has bought the commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News, a newly created position.
The announcement, while anticipated, is a bold move for the venerable television news network initiated by new corporate leader David Ellison. Weiss’ experience is in print journalism, particularly in commentary.
“I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News,” Ellison said in a news release. “This move is part of Paramount’s bigger vision to modernize content and the way it connects — directly and passionately — to audiences around the world.”
Some at CBS News have been concerned that the news division is moving in a direction more friendly to President Donald Trump.
This year, Paramount Global agreed to pay Trump $16 million to settle a lawsuit regarding the editing of an interview with then presidential candidate Kamala Harris on CBS’ storied “60 Minutes” news program.
Journalists were infuriated and a senator suggested an investigation to determine whether bribery laws were broken. The company was hoping to put the issue to rest as it sought administration approval of a major merger.
That deal has since been approved by the Trump administration.
No purchase price was announced for The Free Press, which has been a success in the five years since Weiss started it after leaving The New York Times as an opinion editor. When she left the Times, she wrote a letter of resignation that talked about a culture of intolerance at the newspaper and said she was bullied by colleagues who disagreed with her.
In a letter to CBS News employees on Monday, Weiss said that CBS was part of a deep family tradition growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“My goal in the coming days and weeks is to get to know you,” she wrote. “I want to hear from you about what’s working, what isn’t, and your thoughts on how we can make CBS News the most trusted news organization in America and the world. I’ll approach it the way any reporters would — with an open mind, a fresh notebook and an urgent deadline.”
Ellison said Weiss will report directly to him and partner with CBS News President Tom Cibrowski, who reports to Paramount executive George Cheeks.
Ellison said that Weiss will “shape editorial priorities, champion core values across platforms and lead innovation in how the organization reports and delivers the news.”
He said that “we believe the majority of the country longs for news that is balanced and fact-based, and we want CBS to be their home.”