A US federal judge has firmly rejected Ghislaine Maxwell's request to be released from prison, dismissing her lawyers' claims of "new evidence" that they argued should overturn her conviction. The ruling keeps Maxwell, the convicted associate of the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, behind bars as she continues to serve her sentence for sex trafficking offences. The decision matters because it closes off one of the legal avenues Maxwell had been pursuing to challenge her conviction amid ongoing public scrutiny of the Epstein case.

The judge was strongly critical of the arguments put forward by Maxwell's legal team, characterising their evidence claims as unpersuasive. The case continues to attract intense public and media interest given Epstein's connections to high-profile figures and the broader fallout from his crimes and death in custody. Maxwell remains imprisoned following her 2021 conviction on charges related to the sexual abuse of minors.