Ghislaine Maxwell has formally requested a new trial, less than a month after her conviction on sex trafficking charges.
In a Wednesday letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan, Maxwell's lawyer Bobbi Sternheim said the motion for a new trial had been filed under seal and requested that all submissions related to "Juror No. 50 remain under seal until the Court rules."
The motion for a new trial had been promised by Maxwell's lawyers, who had raised concerns about media interviews following the verdict in which the juror said he had been sexually abused as a child.
Breaking: Ghislaine Maxwell files motion for a new trial; asks that entire motion and all submissions remain under seal. pic.twitter.com/0WtQm0LGlS
— julie k. brown (@jkbjournalist) January 20, 2022
Maxwell was convicted in December of conspiring to recruit teenage girls for her companion Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse them. As the Associated Press reports, her sentencing date has not been set. Maxwell, 60, has insisted that she is innocent and the family has promised an appeal.
In early January it was reported that a juror at the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell told reporters he was sexually abused as a child, and said he had retained a lawyer. The juror's attorney, Todd Spodek, notified the court on Thursday that he would represent the unidentified man.
The juror revealed in media interviews that he disclosed during deliberations that he'd been sexually abused as a child. He said the information helped him convince some jurors that a victim’s imperfect memory of sex abuse doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. The jury later returned a guilty verdict. Defense lawyers say they want a new trial.
