Ghislaine Maxwell to stay behind bars as US Supreme Court rejects appeal by Jeffrey Epstein's ex

Maxwell was jailed for 20 years in June 2022 after being convicted in December 2021 on sex trafficking charges.

Today's decision means her conviction on three counts of recruiting and grooming teenage girls for Epstein - and her 20-year criminal sentence remain in place.

Maxwell’s lawyer David Oscar Markus said: "We’re, of course, deeply disappointed that the Supreme Court declined to hear Ghislaine Maxwell’s case.

"But this fight isn’t over. Serious legal and factual issues remain, and we will continue to pursue every avenue available to ensure that justice is done."

Supreme Court justices did not provide a reason for the decision.

Maxwell's lawyers argued that a non-prosecution agreement reached in 2007 by federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein's lawyers also protected his "potential co-conspirators" from federal charges anywhere in the country.

Maxwell was prosecuted in Manhattan, and the federal appeals court there has already ruled that the prosecution was sound. A jury found her guilty of sex trafficking a teenage girl, among other charges.

Epstein was arrested in 2019 on sex trafficking charges and was accused of sexually abusing dozens of teenage girls. A month later, he was found dead in his New York jail cell.

In August Maxwell was moved to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas with no explanation behind the move.

She had been held at a federal prison in Tallahassee, Florida, until her transfer to the camp in Texas which holds 635 female inmates.