Prosecutors Push For Maximum Sentence, Recommend 30 to 55 Years in Prison For Ghislaine Maxwell

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors pushed for the maximum sentence for Ghislaine Maxwell after she was convicted of helping Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.

Maxwell should be sentenced to between 30 and 55 years in prison, prosecutors wrote in the memorandum after her maximum possible sentence was reduced in April from 65 years to 55.

Circuit Judge Alison Nathan rejected Maxwell’s bid for an acquittal in April but set aside guilty verdicts on two counts because they overlapped, which reduced her maximum possible sentence.

Prosecutors called the conduct by Maxwell, who was convicted in December by a federal jury on five charges, including sex trafficking, for recruiting and grooming four girls between 1994 and 2004 for sexual encounters with Epstein, then her boyfriend, “shockingly predatory.”

“Her practice of targeting vulnerable victims reflects her view that struggling young girls could be treated like disposable objects,” prosecutors wrote in the memorandum that was filed in Manhattan Federal Court

Nathan, who presided over Maxwell’s four-week trial before being promoted, will hand down the sentence on Tuesday, June 28.

The probation office had recommended a 20-year sentence for Maxwell and her lawyers argued last week that she deserved less than that and no more than 5-1/4 years in prison based on their review of federal sentencing guidelines.

Maxwell’s lawyers claimed that she was being scapegoated for Epstein’s crimes and had already spent significant time behind bars.

Prosecutors, however, weren’t buying it and said that the probation office did not take into account the cases of two additional women proven at trial to be victims, despite not being named in the initial indictment of Maxwell, and said that 30 years should be the minimum, based on their interpretation of the U.S. sentencing guidelines.