A federal judge on Tuesday denied Ghislaine Maxwell’s petition for her release from prison.

Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York rejected Maxwell’s habeas corpus petition, which she filed herself without legal representation. Maxwell was convicted of multiple felonies at her December 2021 trial for conspiracy to abuse underage girls with Jeffrey Epstein, whom Engelmayer referred to as “the notorious pedophile.” She then lost an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Supreme Court, which denied her petition for review last year.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence at Federal Prison Camp Bryan in Texas. She was transferred there from a federal prison in Tallahassee, Fla., after meeting with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Engelmayer wrote that most of Maxwell’s claims are “procedurally barred,” either because she already made them during her direct appeal or could have but elected not to. These include Maxwell’s claims of juror misconduct, selective prosecution, and improper conduct by the victims’ lawyers.

Engelmayer’s ruling was not unexpected. Habeas corpus petitions rarely succeed, and they require proof that one or more of a person’s constitutional rights have been violated. In the ruling, Engelmayer depicts Maxwell’s convictions as “all arising from her participation…in the sexual abuse of young girls over the course of a decade” and “based on trial evidence of her guilt that was overwhelming.” He called Maxwell’s petition, filed in December and amended in April, “lengthy and rambling” and characterized her claims as “all meritless” and mostly or entirely “frivolous,” noting that

Although Maxwell can appeal the denial of her petition to the Second Circuit, Engelmayer’s decision leaves her with fewer routes to her release. After reviewing Maxwell’s claims in-depth in his ruling, Engelmayer wrote that they fall “very far from the mark,” adding, “There is no fact that Maxwell fairly puts in dispute that has any potential to disturb the outcome of her trial.”

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