By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell on Wednesday was convicted of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual encounters with the late financier Jeffrey Epstein between 1994 and 2004.
Below is an explanation of what comes next for Maxwell, the 60-year-old daughter of late British media baron Robert Maxwell:
WHEN WILL MAXWELL BE SENTENCED?
Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison for the five charges she was convicted of. She was found guilty https://www.reuters.com/world/us/maxwell-jury-resume-deliberations-after-judge-warns-omicron-risk-2021-12-29 of sex trafficking, the most serious charge she faced with a maximum prison term of 40 years.
U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan did not say when Maxwell would be sentenced.
Maxwell separately faces two perjury counts that will be tried at a later date.
WILL MAXWELL APPEAL?
Maxwell’s lawyer Bobbi Sternheim told reporters the defense was disappointed with the verdict and will appeal.
“We have already started working on the appeal, and we are confident that she will be vindicated,” Sternheim said outside of the courthouse.
While the judge dealt several blows to the defense – ruling, for example, that their witnesses could not testify anonymously as some of Maxwell’s accusers did – legal experts said Maxwell would struggle to clear the high legal bar needed to overturn a guilty verdict.
To succeed, her lawyers would have to show that the judge violated federal rules of evidence or abused her discretion, and that the error impacted the verdict.
WHAT CHARGES DOES SHE STILL FACE?
The two perjury counts relate to allegations that Maxwell lied under oath about her role in Epstein’s abuse during a deposition for a separate civil suit in 2016. Nathan in April granted Maxwell’s request to sever the two charges from the rest of the counts.
The two perjury counts each carry a maximum prison sentence of five years.
WHERE WILL MAXWELL GO NOW?
Maxwell will return to Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan Detention Center, where she has been held in isolation since July 2020. Maxwell has said she has been served moldy food at the jail and that the smell of raw sewage has permeated her cell.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Alistair Bell and Michael Perry)
