Ghislaine Maxwell's Court Papers Missing From Public Record

Source: Newsweek

Jan 07, 2026 at 11:35 AM EST


A number of documents from Ghislaine Maxwell’s recent bid to quash her 2021 sex trafficking conviction are missing from publicly available court documents. In a letter submitted to U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer on Tuesday, Jay Clayton, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, noted that a total of 14 pages were missing from Maxwell’s motion to vacate submitted on December 17.

Examining the public docket shows that Maxwell’s appeal omitted pages 13 to 19 and pages 27 to 33, as Clayton observed. The government has received a full version of the motion in electronic form and in a USB drive sent via FedEx, he wrote, but these papers remain absent from the public record. Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Attorney’s office and Maxwell’s lawyer via email for further comment.

Why It Matters

Any missing evidence or delayed disclosures linked to Maxwell and her accomplice, the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, risk fueling the already widespread cover-up claims which surround the case.

The Department of Justice has come under heavy scrutiny for its handling of the case and the release of Epstein-related documents by the congressionally mandated deadline of December 19. Full transparency has been delayed due to what the Department has blamed on the arduous process of retracting identifying information about Epstein’s victims, and only a fraction of the files in its possession have so far been made available to the public.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/ghislaine-maxwells-court-papers-missing-public-record-11322424