A federal courtroom fell silent as the Justice Department delivered a crushing blow to Ghislaine Maxwell’s final hope on December 10, 2025: Epstein’s 2007 Florida plea deal “won’t save you.”
In a 32-page filing responding to Maxwell’s pro se habeas corpus petition, prosecutors rejected her claim that the 2008 non-prosecution agreement—granting immunity to Epstein and unnamed co-conspirators in the Southern District of Florida—barred her 2021 New York conviction. “The NPA does not apply to federal offenses committed outside Florida,” the brief stated, citing the agreement’s explicit geographic limit and Maxwell’s role in New York-based trafficking from 1994–2004.
Maxwell, representing herself after parting with counsel, argued the deal shielded her as a potential co-conspirator. The DOJ countered that she was neither named nor contemplated in the agreement, and her New York crimes fell outside its scope—a position upheld in prior appeals.
The filing, amid Maxwell’s minimum-security Texas transfer and leaked emails showing prison perks, intensified survivor outrage. Attorneys like Brittany Henderson called it “final validation,” while Maxwell’s team vowed further challenges.
As December 19’s Epstein Files Transparency Act deadline nears, the courtroom’s silence echoed a reckoning: Epstein’s lenient deal, long criticized as elite protection, could not extend its shadow to Maxwell forever.
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