If Judge Alison J. Nathan agrees to the government’s request for a sentence of at least 30 years, Ms. Maxwell could spend much of the rest of her life in prison. Ms Maxwell, 60, the daughter of British media mogul Robert Maxwell, was convicted on December 29 and faces up to three counts of sex trafficking, conspiracy and trafficking in a minor with intent to engage in illicit sexual activity. The defense asked the judge to impose a sentence of less than 20 years recommended by the court’s surveillance office. There is no minimum sentence for Ms. Maxwell, who has been imprisoned since she was denied bail after her arrest on July 2, 2020. The hearing of Mrs Maxwell’s sentence may take more than an hour. Several of her attorneys, including some who testified at her trial, have asked to appear before a judge, and Ms. Maxwell will also have the opportunity to speak. Her lawyers said she planned to appeal and it is possible that Mrs Maxwell, who did not testify at her trial, will choose to remain silent in court on Tuesday. Her trial was widely regarded as the record that Mr. Epstein, 66, her longtime partner, never had. The embarrassed financier was hanged in a Manhattan jail cell a month after his arrest in July 2019, as he awaited his own trial on charges of sex trafficking. However, Mr. Epstein violated the lawsuit – his name appeared repeatedly and Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers took every opportunity to separate their client from him. Ms. Maxwell’s lawyers, in a letter of condemnation to the judge, cited the testimony of the trial of “facilitating Epstein’s mistreatment” by Mrs Maxwell, but argued that “Epstein was the mastermind, Epstein was the master Epstein orchestrated the crimes for his personal satisfaction. “ Lawyers argued that the government turned its attention to Ms Maxwell only after the public uproar following Mr Epstein’s death while she was being held at the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons. Authorities opposed the protest with all available police forces, special services and the army. “ “There would be no trial for Epstein and no public justification and justice for his accusers,” the lawyers wrote. “The government now had a huge hole to fill: Epstein’s empty chair.” The office of Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told the judge that Ms. Maxwell had failed to address her criminal conduct and showed “an absolute lack of remorse.” Ms. Maxwell’s attempt to “criticize the government for prosecuting her, and her claim that she is responsible for Epstein’s crimes, is absurd and offensive,” prosecutors wrote. “Instead of showing even a hint of acceptance of responsibility, the accused is making a desperate attempt to drop the responsibility wherever he can,” they said. The prosecution presented its evidence through 24 witnesses over a period of 10 days in a case focusing on four accusers, now adults. Two of the women said Mr Epstein had been having sex with them since the age of 14. One said that Mrs. Maxwell was sometimes present at the meetings and the other said that Mrs. Maxwell abused her directly by touching her chest. “Maxwell was a sophisticated predator who knew exactly what he was doing,” Allison Moe, a federal prosecutor, told jurors in her summary. “She manipulated her victims and treated them for sexual abuse.”
