NEW YORK: US prosecutors have asked a judge to sentence former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell to at least 30 years in prison for helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls.
Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of sex trafficking minors for the late disgraced financier and is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan on Tuesday.
Her lawyers have argued for leniency, citing a traumatic childhood and claiming that Maxwell is being unfairly punished because Epstein escaped trial.
They called for Judge Alison Nathan to hand down a sentence less than the probation department’s recommended 20 years.
But in a court filing late Wednesday, the government argued that Maxwell should go to jail for somewhere between 30 and 55 years.
She has shown an “utter lack of remorse” for her crimes, wrote Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
“Instead of showing even a hint of acceptance of responsibility, the defendant makes a desperate attempt to cast blame wherever else she can,” he said.
“Maxwell was an adult who made her own choices. She made the choice to sexually exploit numerous underage girls.
“She made the choice to conspire with Epstein for years, working as partners in crime and causing devastating harm to vulnerable victims,” Williams added.
Maxwell, the Oxford-educated daughter of the late British press baron Robert Maxwell, has already been held in detention for some two years following her arrest in New Hampshire in the summer of 2020.
During her high-profile trial, prosecutors successfully argued that Maxwell was “the key” to Epstein’s scheme of enticing young girls to give him massages, during which he would sexually abuse them.
She was found guilty on five of six sexual abuse counts and her sentence could amount to an effective life term behind bars.
It will cap a dramatic fall for the former international jetsetter who grew up in wealth and privilege as a friend to royalty.
Her circle included Britain’s Prince Andrew, former US president and real estate baron Donald Trump and the Clinton family.
Epstein killed himself in 2019 while awaiting his own sex crimes trial in New York.
In February, Prince Andrew settled a sexual abuse lawsuit with Virginia Giuffre, who said she had been trafficked to the royal by Epstein and Maxwell.
Prosecutors seek at least 30 years in jail for Ghislaine Maxwell
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Prosecutors seek at least 30 years in jail for Ghislaine Maxwell
- Maxwell, 60, was convicted in December of sex trafficking minors for the late disgraced financier
- Her lawyers have argued for leniency, citing a traumatic childhood
With Cuban ally Maduro ousted, Trump warns Havana to make a ‘deal’ before it’s too late
- Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return
- The government has said US sanctions cost Cuba over $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida: President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela’s leader.
Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as US forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country’s oil products.
Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.
Hours later, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, responded on X by saying “those who turn everything into a business, even human lives, have no moral authority to point the finger at Cuba in any way, absolutely in any way.”
The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.
“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”
Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.
Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro’s capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.
“Those who hysterically accuse our nation today do so out of rage at this people’s sovereign decision to choose their political model,” Díaz-Canel said in his post. He added that “those who blame the Revolution for the severe economic shortages we suffer should be ashamed to keep quiet” and he railed against the “draconian measures” imposed by the US on Cuba.
The island’s communist government has said US sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025.
Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of an American embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.
“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”
