Ghislaine Maxwell is appealing her sex trafficking conviction

Ghislaine Maxwell will appeal her sex trafficking conviction on the basis that her ‘inhumane’ treatment left her physically incapable of mounting a defense.

DailyMail.com can reveal that the disgraced socialite will claim she couldn’t ‘meaningfully assist’ in court because the grim conditions in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she was held before her trial, prison left her so sleep deprived and exhausted.

The appeal will suggest that was the reason she did not testify during her trial for recruiting and trafficking underage girls to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The appeal, which is expected to run to hundreds of pages, must be filed by the end of Tuesday at the federal court in New York where Maxwell was found guilty last January following a trial.

DailyMail.com can reveal Ghislaine Maxwell is appealing her sex trafficking conviction on the basis that her ‘inhumane’ treatment in prison left her physically incapable of mounting a defense

The disgraced socialite will claim she couldn't 'meaningfully assist' in court because the grim conditions in prison left her so sleep deprived and exhausted

The disgraced socialite will claim she couldn’t ‘meaningfully assist’ in court because the grim conditions in prison left her so sleep deprived and exhausted

She is being represented by Arthur Aidala, the New York lawyer who is also representing Harvey Weinstein on his appeal against his conviction before a Manhattan jury.

Bruised Maxwell is seen in this photo of her alleged mistreatment in prison

Bruised Maxwell is seen in this photo of her alleged mistreatment in prison 

Aidala said that Maxwell had been an ‘active’ participant in the work on her appeal from her cell at FCI Tallahassee in Florida, where she is now serving her 20 year sentence. She was transferred after her convictions.

Maxwell was found guilty of conspiracy to entice and transport minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, transporting a minor to participate in illegal sex acts, sex trafficking conspiracy, and sex trafficking of a minor.

During her sentencing Judge Alison Nathan, who presided over the trial, called her crimes ‘horrific’.

Maxwell, 61, has always maintained her innocence and in a jailhouse interview said that she wished she had never met Epstein, her former boyfriend.

Maxwell’s lawyers complained repeatedly about her conditions in the Brooklyn lock-up while she awaited trial.

The appeal will claim she was held in solitary confinement ‘under inhumane conditions’ including leaving her sleep deprived.

By the time the trial arrived she was so worn down she was ‘unable meaningfully to assist in her own defense, much less to testify’, the appeal will claim.

Maxwell's lawyers complained repeatedly about her conditions in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while she awaited trial

Maxwell’s lawyers complained repeatedly about her conditions in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while she awaited trial 

Maxwell juror Scotty Davidsaid he 'flew through' the prospective juror questionnaire, not realizing he should have revealed he had been a victim of sexual abuse

Maxwell juror Scotty Davidsaid he ‘flew through’ the prospective juror questionnaire, not realizing he should have revealed he had been a victim of sexual abuse

Maxwell, 61, is serving 20 years after being found guilty of sex trafficking and procuring underage girls for late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein

Maxwell, 61, is serving 20 years after being found guilty of sex trafficking and procuring underage girls for late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein 

In previous legal filings Maxwell’s lawyers said that while awaiting trial she was ‘withering away to a shell of her former self’.

They claimed her hair was falling out, she was losing weight and was being forced to scrub the showers as punishment.

She claimed she never had a ‘properly heated meal’ and that every meal she was given melted to the plastic in the microwave.

Maxwell also griped about being kept awake by having a torch shone in her face every 15 minutes throughout night which kept her awake, and said the water behind bars was ‘odorous and non-palatable’ and so ‘clouded with heavy particulates’ that it went brown.

Judge Nathan largely rejected the claims and in court Maxwell appeared alert and engaged, at one point even meeting a journalist as she sat with her lawyers.

Among the other claims in the appeal will be that trial violated a non prosecution agreement signed by federal prosecutors in Florida under which Epstein served 13 months in jail in 2008 for having sex with underage girls.

Maxwell will claim that Scotty David, one juror in her case ‘concealed’ the fact they had experienced childhood sexual abuse and then used it to persuade the other jurors of Maxwell’s guilt. 

David said he ‘flew through’ the prospective juror questionnaire without realizing he should have revealed he had been a victim of sexual abuse.

There will also be claims she was made a ‘proxy’ for Epstein, who was found hanged in his cell while awaiting trial in July 2019. His death was ruled a suicide.

The convicted criminal is housed at Florida's FCI Tallahassee female prison. Maxwell, who is known as inmate 02879-509, works six hours a day in the library to pass the time

The convicted criminal is housed at Florida’s FCI Tallahassee female prison. Maxwell, who is known as inmate 02879-509, works six hours a day in the library to pass the time

Maxwell now has daily access to the sporting facilities at the prison including the 400-meter running track where she has been seen going on hour-long jobs

Maxwell now has daily access to the sporting facilities at the prison including the 400-meter running track where she has been seen going on hour-long jobs

Maxwell now has daily access to the sporting facilities at the prison including the 400-meter running track where she has been seen going on hour-long jobs

Maxwell was arrested a year later at a $1million mansion in Bradford, New Hampshire called Tuckedaway that she bought while with her estranged husband, Scott Borgerson, a former tech tycoon.

Reports have claimed the ex-couple, who married in 2016, have divorced with Maxwell getting just $1million out of the $22million she was worth before her trial.

However a source close to Maxwell denied the divorce had been finalized, saying that ‘there is no settlement’ and declining to comment further.

Inside FCI Tallahassee Maxwell, who is known as inmate 02879-509, works six hours a day in the library to pass the time. She was denied a job at a government-owned call center because prison authorities decided it should not go to a convicted sex offender.

As DailyMail.com exclusively revealed on Monday, she was put in solitary confinement for two days for an interview that was aired on British television. Prison authorities believed she had broken rules by being paid and released her from the Special Housing Unit when they realized she hadn’t.

Now back in the general population at the low-security prison she has daily access to the sporting facilities at the prison including the 400-meter running track where she has been seen going on hour-long jobs.

Maxwell has used her Oxford University education to win over some of the 755-strong prison population, who don’t seem to mind that she is posh.

She hangs out with con woman Linda Morrow, who helped her plastic surgeon husband bilk insurers out of $44million by pretending cosmetic procedures such as tummy tucks, breast augmentations and ‘vaginal rejuvenations’ were medical necessities.

Another confidante is Narcy Novak, a 65-year-old Florida woman serving life without parole for hiring hitmen to murder her hotelier husband Ben Novak Jr. and his elderly mother Bernice in a grab for their family estate.

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