Ghislaine Maxwell Says She Deserves To Be Freed In Wake Of Bill Cosby's Release Due To Allegedly Similar Technicality
July 1 2021, Published 5:30 p.m. ET
Ghislaine Maxwell believes she deserves to be freed in the wake of Bill Cosby's release from prison due to an allegedly similar technicality that got the disgraced comedian's conviction overturned.
The ex-socialite and alleged madam of Jeffrey Epstein is currently locked up in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
But because a prosecutor once allegedly "promised Epstein when he pleaded guilty that they would not prosecute her," she feels she's owed her freedom.
"In her case, Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty and struck a bargain with the prosecutors in Miami: In exchange for pleading guilty in state court, the U.S. attorney's office agreed that it would not prosecute any of his alleged co-conspirators," wrote her appellate lawyer, David Oscar Markus, in the New York Daily News.
According to Markus, it's the government's duty to uphold its end of the alleged bargain with Epstein.
"Maxwell is accused of being one of Epstein's co-conspirators from 25 years ago. She has declared her innocence and is set to fight the case at trial in November," he wrote. "But she should not have to fight her case at trial and her case should be thrown out, just like Cosby's has been, because prosecutors promised Epstein when he pleaded guilty that they would not prosecute her."
He argued, "When Epstein agreed to plead guilty and go to state prison, the United States agreed not to prosecute him or his alleged co-conspirators. This is in black and white: 'the United States ... will not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein.'"
On Wednesday, the highest court in Pennsylvania – where Cosby was serving time – overturned his sexual assault conviction, citing a deal he had made with a previous district attorney that in theory should have prevented him from being tried in the first place, as well as an apparent violation of his due process rights during the trial.