Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence in the United States for her involvement in an alleged sex trafficking ring run by billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein, has said she is planning to file a petition seeking her release.

The plan was revealed in a court filing on Wednesday and did not provide details about the legal grounds Maxwell would cite in her petition. It added that she would pursue her early release without the help of a lawyer.

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The letter further cautioned against releasing documents related to Maxwell’s case, as they may “contain untested and unproven allegations”.

It explained that releasing grand jury materials from Maxwell’s case “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial”, should her petition to be released succeed.

The petition comes at a time of heightened scrutiny on the late Epstein’s crimes and those who may have known about them.

US President Donald Trump, in particular, has faced questions about his administration’s handling of files related to the case, which may contain details of Epstein’s powerful associates.

Critics have also pressed Trump to address his own relationship with Epstein.

Speculation about a pardon

The billionaire financier died by suicide in August 2019, while he was in detention in a New York City jail.

Hundreds of women have come forward to identify themselves as survivors of Epstein’s crimes. Many have demanded greater accountability from Epstein’s political and business contacts.

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The circumstances of Epstein’s death and his influential social circle have also fuelled conspiracy theories about possible cover-ups and unnamed accomplices.

Members of Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, including officials like Kash Patel, were among those who spread the conspiracy theories.

Prior to taking office, Patel — currently the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — spoke on podcasts about the possibility that Epstein might have kept a “client list” or “black book” to blackmail his contacts.

But in a July memo, Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi doused those conspiracy theories with a memo claiming there was no client list, nor grounds to prosecute additional defendants.

That memo roiled segments of Trump’s MAGA base and led to new attention to the president’s ties to Epstein.

The Trump administration has tried to tamp down on that speculation, and Trump himself has denied being close to the financier.

Amid pressure to release all of the government’s Epstein-related files, the Trump administration sent a Justice Department official to interview Maxwell in July over the course of two days.

In a published transcript afterwards, Maxwell said she never witnessed Trump in “any inappropriate setting”.

Shortly after the July interview, Maxwell was transferred from a Florida prison to a lower-security facility in Texas.

Push to release documents

While the Trump administration has pledged transparency in its handling of the Epstein case, critics have argued that he has avoided releasing the relevant files.

But in late November, Trump made an about-face on the issue, signing a bill Congress had passed that compels the Department of Justice to release all unclassified materials related Epstein in a “searchable and downloadable format” within 30 days.

Speculation has also grown over whether Trump might move to pardon Maxwell or commute her sentence.

In November, House Democrats said a whistleblower reported that Maxwell was preparing a “Commutation Application” to be delivered to the Trump administration.

Weeks later, Jamie Raskin, the top Democratic on the House Judiciary Committee, filed a petition opposing a presidential pardon or commutation.

“Every Member should support this Resolution to send a clear and unequivocal message in advance to President Donald Trump before he makes a mockery of the pardon power once again,” he said.

“America opposes the grant of any get-out-of-jail-free card to the unrepentant, unremorseful liar and criminal who was an indispensable actor in a vicious billion-dollar international child sex trafficking ring.”

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Trump has maintained he has not considered a pardon for Maxwell.