NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court will in March review Ghislaine Maxwell's conviction and 20-year prison sentence for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Wednesday scheduled oral arguments in Maxwell's appeal for March 12 before a three-judge panel.
Jurors found Maxwell guilty in December 2021 of five charges for recruiting and grooming four underage girls for Epstein, her former boyfriend, to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Maxwell, 62, is housed at a low-security prison in Tallahassee, Florida. She is eligible for release in July 2037.
In her appeal, the daughter of the late British media mogul Robert Maxwell said prosecutors scapegoated her because Epstein was dead and "public outrage" demanded that blame go somewhere.
Her lawyers said the government waited too long to bring charges, and that Maxwell was immune under a 2007 non-prosecution agreement between Epstein and federal prosecutors in Florida.
They also said the trial was tainted because one juror failed to disclose he had been sexually abused as a child.
Prosecutors countered that Maxwell's appeal had no merit.
They cited Circuit Judge Alison Nathan's findings that Maxwell had done "incalculable" damage to her victims, and that a substantial sentence would show people who sexually abuse and traffic underage victims that "nobody is above the law."