The non-prosecution agreement that spared multi-millionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein federal sex-trafficking charges in the early 2000s was certified at the highest levels of the Justice Department, lawyers for alleged cohort Ghislaine Maxwell charged in court documents unsealed Thursday.
In the filing, Maxwell’s attorneys sought to dismiss federal charges she now faces for allegedly procuring underage girls for Epstein and lying about it under oath by claiming she is subject to the same agreement he signed in 2007.
The court filing includes a copy of the deal signed by then-Florida federal prosecutor Alexander Acosta and details how the “atypical” agreement, which barred Epstein from facing federal prosecution if he copped to a one-count state indictment, was agreed upon.
Maxwell’s attorneys claim in the filing that the agreement was “heavily negotiated over approximately eight months” and was approved by “senior levels of Main Justice in Washington, D.C.”
It adds that the agreement approved by the office of the Deputy Attorney General before it was signed, allowing Epstein to avoid federal prosecution in Florida for trafficking underage girls to sexually abuse.
Lawyers for Epstein, who killed himself in a Lower Manhattan jail cell in 2019, have said previously that the deal was certified at the highest levels of the Justice Department.
In the filing, Maxwell’s attorneys said the agreement should apply to her right now and spare her from the indictment she’s currently facing in the Southern District of New York.
“The parties to the NPA clearly intended to confer a benefit on any and all of Epstein’s potential co-conspirators in explicitly giving them immunity,” the filing states.
“Under well-established principles of general contract law, and particularly under the law relating to non prosecution agreements, any and all of Epstein’s potential co-conspirators are third-party beneficiaries of the NPA,” it adds.
Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to allegedly procuring girls for Epstein to abuse and to lying about it under oath.
She’s being held in federal jail in Brooklyn pending trial.