Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, a former confidant of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, are asking to have some of her charges in a sex trafficking case dropped, citing the recent release of former actor Bill Cosby from prison.
Maxwell is facing an eight-count indictment in connection with her role in a sex trafficking scheme with Epstein, who was a convicted sex offender.
Epstein was charged in July 2019 with sex trafficking and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking but was denied bail ahead of his trial. He died in jail, and his death was ruled a suicide by a New York City medical examiner.
In a court filing on Friday, Maxwell’s lawyers claimed that she was covered by a nondisclosure agreement between Epstein and Miami federal prosecutors in 2007, NBC News reported.
The filing said that since prosecutors had agreed not to issue charges to co-conspirators, she would be included in that agreement even though she’s not specifically named.
“The government is trying to renege on its agreement and prosecute Ms. Maxwell over 25 years later for the exact same offenses for which she was granted immunity in the NPA,” the filing said, according to NBC News.
Cosby’s 2018 conviction was overturned on Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said that his due process rights were violated.
Then-District Attorney Bruce Castor promised Cosby he would not press charges given that he felt he did not have enough evidence to convict Cosby of sexual assault against Andrea Constand, who was a Temple University employee at the time. Cosby subsequently testified in a civil case brought by Castor instead.
However, the district attorney who succeeded Castor did not honor the previous arrangement and used evidence from the testimony to file charges against Cosby.
According to NBC News, federal prosecutors in Manhattan have said in the past that the nondisclosure agreement does not apply to Maxwell.
Maxwell allegedly helped Epstein recruit underage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Maxwell was originally charged with four counts related to conspiracy to entice minors to travel and engage in illegal sex acts and two counts of perjury for allegedly lying to prosecutors.
In March, she was subsequently hit with two more charges.