Maxwell, 60, was convicted by a jury in December of five federal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor, after a month-long trial in which jurors heard testimony about his relationship with the deceased. Epstein. Prosecutors argued during Maxwell’s trial that she had helped him establish a plan to lure young girls into sex between 1994 and 2004. Epstein was found dead in a federal detention center shortly after he was charged with allegedly directing a sex trafficking network of underage girls, and Maxwell was arrested the following year.
“But this court cannot convict Ms. Maxwell as if she were an Epstein attorney simply because Epstein is no longer here,” Maxwell’s attorney said in his sentencing recommendation. “Mrs. Maxwell cannot and must not bear all the punishments for which Epstein should have been held responsible.”
Prosecutors are expected to make their sentencing recommendation on June 22, and Maxwell is scheduled to be convicted on June 28. The parole department recommended a 20-year sentence, below the sentencing guidelines.
CNN has contacted prosecutors to comment on Maxwell’s sentencing recommendation.
At Maxwell’s request for a more lenient sentence Wednesday, his lawyers said it would be a “parody of justice” if Maxwell faced an appropriate sentence for Epstein. He was sentenced to between 4.25 and 5.25 years in prison.
Although a jury convicted Maxwell of five counts, she will only be convicted of three counts after the judge presiding over her case agreed that two of the conspiracy charges she faced were repetitive.
“Ms Maxwell has already experienced difficult times during detention in much more onerous and punitive conditions than those living in a typical pre-trial detention, and is preparing to spend much more time behind bars,” Maxwell’s lawyers wrote. “Her life has been ruined. Since Epstein’s death, her life has been threatened and death threats continue while she is imprisoned.”
Citing a “difficult and traumatic childhood” with a dominant father, Maxwell’s lawyers say he was “vulnerable” to Epstein, and that meeting him was “the biggest mistake he made in his life.” Maxwell’s lawyers say she has not been charged with “anything nasty” in the 15 years since she ended her relationship with Epstein.
Maxwell has been in custody since her arrest in July 2020, and her lawyers say her time behind bars has been a “disproportionate punishment before sentencing” that will not end now that she is housed with the general population. Her lawyers claim she was recently threatened by an inmate of her unit who allegedly told her that an additional 20 years in prison would be worth the “money” she would get to kill Maxwell.
Her lawyers also argue that she is subject to multiple beatings a day alleging “being sexually abused by correctional officers” several times.