Ghislaine Maxwell Blames Tough Adolescence, Asks For Lighter Sentence

(CNN)Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell have requested a judge to sentence her to a significantly decrease sentence than recommended through the authorities, saying her hard formative years made her at risk of Jeffrey Epstein and that she should not face a harsh sentence due to his moves.

Maxwell, 60, became convicted through a jury in December of 5 federal expenses, together with sex trafficking of a minor, after a month-long trial in which jurors heard testimony about her dating with the late Epstein. Prosecutors argued all through Maxwell's trial that she helped him set up a scheme to lure younger girls into sexual relationships between 1994 to 2004.

Epstein changed into determined useless in a federal detention facility shortly after being indicted for allegedly strolling a sex trafficking ring of underage women, and Maxwell was arrested the subsequent yr.

"But this Court cannot sentence Ms. Maxwell as though she have been a proxy for Epstein clearly due to the fact Epstein is no longer here," Maxwell's legal professional stated of their sentencing recommendation. "Ms. Maxwell can't and must no longer undergo all of the punishment for which Epstein have to were held accountable."

Prosecutors are anticipated to make their sentencing advice with the aid of June 22, and Maxwell is scheduled to be sentenced on June 28. The probation department recommended a 20-yr sentence, under the sentencing hints.

CNN has reached out to prosecutors for touch upon Maxwell's sentencing advice.

In Maxwell's request for a extra lenient sentence Wednesday, her lawyers stated it would be a "travesty of justice" if Maxwell confronted a sentence appropriate for Epstein. They advocated that she get hold of among four.25 and five.25 years in prison.

While a jury convicted Maxwell on five counts, she will be able to handiest be sentenced on 3 after the choose presiding over her case agreed that two of the conspiracy counts she confronted have been repetitive.

"Ms. Maxwell has already skilled tough time at some stage in detention under conditions far more exhausting and punitive than any skilled with the aid of an average pretrial detainee, and she is making ready to spend substantially extra time at the back of bars," Maxwell's attorneys wrote. "Her lifestyles has been ruined. Since Epstein's loss of life, her existence has been threatened and loss of life threats keep at the same time as she is incarcerated."

Citing a "hard, stressful adolescence" with an overbearing father, Maxwell's lawyers say she became "inclined" to Epstein, and that meeting him turned into the "largest mistake she made in her life." Maxwell's lawyers say she has no longer been accused of "some thing untoward" in the 15 years because her courting with Epstein ended.

Maxwell has been detained seeing that her arrest in July 2020, and her attorneys say her time behind bars has been a "disproportionate pre-sentence punishment" in order to no longer cease now that she's housed with the overall population. Her lawyers declare she become most lately threatened through an inmate in her unit who allegedly told her that an extra 20 years in prison could be "really worth the money" she'd get for killing Maxwell.

Her attorneys also argue she's difficulty to a couple of pat downs a day where she alleges "to have been touched in a sexually irrelevant way by way of correction officers" numerous times.