---
alias:
- US v. Maxwell
- U.S. v. Maxwell
- United States v. Ghislaine Maxwell
- United States v. Maxwell (2020)
- Maxwell v. United States
category: Law Enforcement & Legal
created: 2026-09-25
location: New York, New York
relations:
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  role: defendant
  start: 2020-06-29
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Ghislaine Maxwell]]'
- fn: 1
  reverse: true
  role: prosecutor
  start: 2020-06-29
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[U.S. Attorney''s Office for the Southern District of New York]]'
- end: 2022-06-29
  fn: 1
  reverse: true
  role: presiding judge
  start: 2020-06-29
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Alison Nathan]]'
- fn: 9
  reverse: true
  role: presiding judge after reassignment
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Paul Engelmayer]]'
- fn: 9
  reverse: true
  role: counsel for the United States
  start: 2025-07-18
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Todd Blanche]]'
- end: 2026-01-21
  fn: 11
  reverse: true
  role: proposed amicus curiae
  start: 2026-01-13
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Thomas Massie]]'
- end: 2026-01-21
  fn: 11
  reverse: true
  role: proposed amicus curiae
  start: 2026-01-13
  type: participant_in
  with: '[[Ro Khanna]]'
start: 2020-06-29
summary: Federal sex-trafficking prosecution of Ghislaine Maxwell in the Southern
  District of New York, ending in a 2021 conviction and 20-year sentence, whose grand
  jury record was unsealed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
tags:
- Event
- FederalCase
- CriminalCase
- GhislaineMaxwell
- JeffreyEpstein
- SexTrafficking
- SouthernDistrictOfNewYork
- EpsteinFilesTransparencyAct
updated: 2026-09-25
---

United States v. Maxwell (No. 1:20-cr-00330) is the federal criminal prosecution of [Ghislaine Maxwell](/people/ghislaine-maxwell/) in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for her part in [Jeffrey Epstein](/people/jeffrey-epstein/)'s sexual abuse of minors. A grand jury indicted her under seal on June 29, 2020, ten months after Epstein's death; a jury convicted her on December 29, 2021 on five of six counts, and Judge Alison Nathan sentenced her on June 28, 2022 to 240 months. The Second Circuit affirmed in 2024, rejecting her claim to immunity under the [Epstein non-prosecution agreement](/events/epstein-non-prosecution-agreement/), and the Supreme Court denied review in October 2025. Under Judge [Paul Engelmayer](/people/paul-engelmayer/) the closed docket became, in 2025 and 2026, a forum for the release of the grand jury record under the [Epstein Files Transparency Act](/concepts/epstein-files-transparency-act/).[^1][^2][^3]

### Indictment and Pretrial

The indictment was unsealed on July 2, 2020, the day agents of the [Federal Bureau of Investigation](/organizations/federal-bureau-of-investigation/) arrested Maxwell at a property in New Hampshire. Its six counts charged her with facilitating Epstein's abuse of minor victims "from around 1994 to 1997." A first superseding indictment of July 10, 2020 added two perjury counts drawn from her 2016 deposition in [Giuffre v. Maxwell](/events/giuffre-v-maxwell/). A second, of March 29, 2021, added a sex trafficking conspiracy count and a count of sex trafficking of a minor, extended the charged conduct into the early 2000s, and renumbered the perjury counts as Seven and Eight. Nathan entered the protective order governing discovery (ECF No. 36) on July 30, 2020.[^1]

Maxwell's lawyers, Mark S. Cohen of Cohen & Gresser, Jeffrey S. Pagliuca and Laura A. Menninger of Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, and Bobbi C. Sternheim, moved to dismiss for breach of the 2007 agreement, whose co-conspirator clause provided that "the United States also agrees that it will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein." Nathan denied the motion with the other pretrial motions on April 16, 2021 (ECF No. 207). In an August 24, 2020 reply brief Pagliuca told Nathan that the government had subpoenaed from Giuffre's lawyers nearly 90,000 pages of civil discovery still under the Giuffre v. Maxwell protective order, more than half of the 165,000 pages of criminal discovery, while the Second Circuit and Judge [Loretta Preska](/people/loretta-preska/) were deciding whether to unseal the same material; he asked leave to tell those courts under seal, warning that if they ordered Maxwell's deposition unsealed "without the benefit of this information," "the cat will be out of the bag."[^4][^5]

### Trial and Sentence

Trial began on November 29, 2021. Epstein's pilot [Larry Visoski](/people/larry-visoski/) testified for the government; three accusers testified under pseudonyms and a fourth, [Annie Farmer](/people/annie-farmer/), under her own name. On December 9 Nathan admitted Epstein's contact book as Government Exhibit 52 on the authentication of Juan Alessi, the former [Palm Beach](/places/palm-beach-florida/) house manager (ECF No. 535). The jury of six women and six men deliberated about 40 hours over parts of six days and on December 29, 2021 convicted Maxwell of conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors, transportation of a minor, sex trafficking conspiracy and sex trafficking of a minor, acquitting her on Count Two. Nathan denied a new trial motion on April 1, 2022 after a juror's undisclosed history of childhood abuse, finding the omission "highly unfortunate, but not deliberate."[^1][^6]

At sentencing on June 28, 2022 Nathan calculated a Guidelines range of 188 to 235 months and imposed 240 months, as concurrent terms of 60 months on each conspiracy count, 120 months on the transportation count and 240 months on the count of sex trafficking of a minor, with 250,000 dollar fines on three counts, 750,000 dollars in all. She found that Maxwell had "directly, repeatedly, and over the course of many years participated in a horrific scheme to entice, transport, and traffic underage girls, some as young as 14, for sexual abuse by and with Jeffrey Epstein." The perjury counts were dismissed. A July 22, 2025 internal FBI email recorded that "[a]fter the conviction, the perjury charges were dropped to prevent the victims from testifying in another trial."[^6][^7]

### Appeal and Certiorari

A panel of Judges José A. Cabranes, Richard C. Wesley and Raymond J. Lohier Jr. heard argument on March 12, 2024 and affirmed on September 17, 2024 (118 F.4th 256). Applying United States v. Annabi (1985), it held that "[a] plea agreement binds only the office of the United States Attorney for the district in which the plea is entered unless it affirmatively appears that the agreement contemplates a broader restriction," found that "[n]othing before us indicates that USAO-SDNY had been notified or had approved of Epstein's NPA," and acknowledged that the circuits "have been split on this issue for decades." Rehearing was denied on November 25, 2024. The November 2020 report of the [Justice Department](/organizations/department-of-justice/)'s [Office of Professional Responsibility](/organizations/office-of-professional-responsibility/) on the Florida agreement was filed in both the district court and the appellate record. Maxwell petitioned the Supreme Court on April 10, 2025 (No. 24-1073), asking whether a promise made on behalf of "the United States" by a U.S. Attorney in one district binds prosecutors in other districts; the Solicitor General opposed on July 14, 2025, and certiorari was denied on October 6, 2025.[^2][^3][^8]

### The 2025 Interview and the Grand Jury Record

On July 18, 2025 Deputy Attorney General [Todd Blanche](/people/todd-blanche/), formerly [Donald Trump](/people/donald-trump/)'s personal criminal defense lawyer, entered an appearance for the United States in the closed case (ECF No. 784) and moved to unseal the grand jury transcripts (ECF No. 785). He questioned Maxwell under a grant of limited use immunity in Tallahassee on July 24 and 25, and on August 1 she was moved to the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas. Engelmayer, to whom the case had passed after Nathan's elevation to the Second Circuit, denied the unsealing motion on August 11, 2025 (ECF No. 809, 794 F. Supp. 3d 215), holding that Rule 6(e) barred disclosure and that the "special circumstances" exception did not apply.[^9]

After the Epstein Files Transparency Act became law on November 19, 2025, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Buckley renewed the motion (ECF No. 810). Engelmayer took victim submissions through a dedicated Justice Department mailbox, docketed three redacted victim letters (ECF No. 818), and on December 9, 2025 granted the motion and modified the 2020 protective order, subject to the Act's victim-privacy provision (ECF No. 820). In the parallel docket of United States v. Epstein, Judge [Richard M. Berman](/people/richard-m-berman/) reached the same two results a day apart from Engelmayer at each stage.[^9][^10]

On January 13, 2026 Representatives [Thomas Massie](/people/thomas-massie/) and [Ro Khanna](/people/ro-khanna/), the Act's sponsors, moved to appear as amici curiae and asked for "a special master or independent monitor," telling the court that the Department had "publicly released only 12,285 documents" of "more than 2 million documents potentially responsive to the Act" and that "DOJ cannot be trusted with making mandatory disclosures under the Act" (ECF Nos. 837, 838). Letters from victims, including one from Haley Robson transmitted by the government (ECF No. 843), were cited in support. Engelmayer denied the motion on January 21, 2026 (ECF No. 844): "This federal criminal case does not give the Court jurisdiction over, or authority to supervise, DOJ's compliance with the EFTA, a civil records-disclosure statute." He described the case as "effectively closed," with Maxwell's pro se motion under 28 U.S.C. 2255, filed December 17, 2025 (ECF No. 830), "the only outstanding item." Status letters over the name of the U.S. Attorney, [Jay Clayton](/people/jay-clayton/), followed on January 15 and 31 (ECF Nos. 839, 847). The government's letters of February 12 and April 21, 2026 concerned the schedule for its response to the section 2255 motion, and the docket remained active on July 31, 2026 (ECF No. 866).[^11][^12]

[^1]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 1:20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y.), Indictment (sealed June 29, 2020, unsealed July 2, 2020); S1 Superseding Indictment (July 10, 2020); S2 Superseding Indictment (March 29, 2021); Protective Order, ECF No. 36 (July 30, 2020); Opinion and Order, ECF No. 207 (April 16, 2021); Memorandum Opinion and Order, ECF No. 535 (Dec. 9, 2021), CourtListener docket 17318376. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/
[^2]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 22-1426-cr, slip op. at 3-4, 6-12, 23-25 (2d Cir. Sept. 17, 2024) (Cabranes, Wesley, Lohier, JJ.), reported at 118 F.4th 256, quoting the NPA at A-178 and United States v. Annabi, 771 F.2d 670, 672 (2d Cir. 1985). https://storage.courtlistener.com/pdf/2024/09/17/united_states_v._maxwell.pdf
[^3]: Maxwell v. United States, No. 24-1073 (U.S.), Petition for a Writ of Certiorari (April 10, 2025); Brief for the United States in Opposition (July 14, 2025); certiorari denied, 146 S. Ct. 93 (Oct. 6, 2025). https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/24-1073.html ; https://www.justice.gov/epstein/doj-disclosures/court-records-maxwell-v-united-states-no-24-1073-us-2025-petition-cert
[^4]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 1:20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y.), Notice of Motion to Dismiss Superseding Indictment for Breach of Non-Prosecution Agreement, ECF No. 141 (filed Feb. 4, 2021). https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.141.0.pdf
[^5]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00088205, DataSet 9, letter, Jeffrey S. Pagliuca, Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, P.C., to Hon. Alison J. Nathan, "Re: Reply in Support of Request to Modify Protective Order (Under Seal), United States v. Ghislaine Maxwell, 20 Cr. 330 (AJN)," August 24, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00088205.pdf
[^6]: "Ghislaine Maxwell Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison," U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, June 28, 2022. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/ghislaine-maxwell-sentenced-20-years-prison-conspiring-jeffrey-epstein-sexually-abuse ; "Ghislaine Maxwell trial: Jury finds she sex trafficked a minor for Jeffrey Epstein, guilty on five of six counts," *CNN,* December 29, 2021. https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/29/us/ghislaine-maxwell-trial-wednesday ; "Juror's omissions will not trigger Ghislaine Maxwell retrial," *Courthouse News Service,* April 2022. https://www.courthousenews.com/jurors-omissions-will-not-trigger-ghislaine-maxwell-retrial/
[^7]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA00161422, DataSet 9, internal email chain, "Re: Ghislaine Maxwell," July 22, 2025, EFTA00161422 to EFTA00161424. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00161422.pdf
[^8]: U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02830776, Court Records (United States v. Maxwell, No. 1:20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y. 2020)), Office of Professional Responsibility report of November 2020 as filed in the case. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/United%20States%20v.%20Maxwell%2C%20No.%20120-cr-00330%20(S.D.N.Y.%202020)/EFTA02830776.pdf ; U.S. Department of Justice, Epstein Library, EFTA02844213, Court Records (United States v. Maxwell, No. 22-1426 (2d Cir. 2022)), Document 1-1. https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/Court%20Records/United%20States%20v.%20Maxwell%2C%20No.%2022-1426%20(2d%20Cir.%202022)/EFTA02844213.pdf
[^9]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 1:20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y.), ECF Nos. 784, 785 (July 18, 2025); Opinion and Order, ECF No. 809 (Aug. 11, 2025), reported at 794 F. Supp. 3d 215; Renewed Motion to Unseal, ECF No. 810 (Nov. 24, 2025); Order, ECF No. 811; victim letters, ECF No. 818 (Dec. 5, 2025); Opinion and Order, ECF No. 820 (Dec. 9, 2025), 2025 WL 3522378. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/ ; "Ghislaine Maxwell moved to federal prison camp in Texas," *CNN,* August 1, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/01/politics/ghislaine-maxwell-federal-prison-texas
[^10]: United States v. Epstein, No. 1:19-cr-00490 (S.D.N.Y.), Decision and Order, ECF No. 77 (Aug. 20, 2025); Decision and Order, ECF No. 92 (Dec. 10, 2025), CourtListener docket 15887848. https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/15887848/united-states-v-epstein/
[^11]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 20 Cr. 330 (PAE) (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 21, 2026), Opinion and Order, ECF No. 844, denying motion of Reps. Massie and Khanna (ECF Nos. 837, 838). https://www.nysd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/2026-01/Maxwell%2020cr330%20-%20Opinion%20%26%20Order%201.21.26.pdf
[^12]: United States v. Maxwell, No. 1:20-cr-00330 (S.D.N.Y.), Pro Se Motion to Vacate under 28 U.S.C. 2255, ECF No. 830 (Dec. 17, 2025); letters, ECF Nos. 839 (Jan. 15, 2026), 843 (Jan. 20, 2026), 847 (Jan. 31, 2026), 852 (Feb. 12, 2026), 856 (April 21, 2026), 866 (July 31, 2026). https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/