Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers are playing the Bill Cosby card– arguing the court ruling that sprung the disgraced comedian from prison backs up throwing out her sex trafficking case.
In a Friday letter to a Manhattan federal judge, the lawyers claimed that Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam is in a “similar situation” as Cosby because both were immunized under a deal with prosecutors when they were charged.
Cosby, 83, was freed Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court found that prosecutors violated his rights by going back on an apparent promise not to charge him with drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004.
He was convicted in 2018 and had served nearly three years of a three- to 10-year sentence when he was released.
Lawyers for the British socialite claim that their client is similarly covered by a non-prosecution agreement that Epstein signed with federal prosecutors in Florida in 2007.
“As in Cosby, the government is trying to renege on its agreement and prosecute Ms. Maxwell over 25 years later for the exact same offenses for which she was granted immunity,” the lawyers wrote. “This is not consistent with principles of fundamental fairness.”
Maxwell, 59, is charged with recruiting teenage girls for Epstein to sexually abuse between 1994 and 2004. She’s pleaded not guilty and is being held in federal custody in Manhattan ahead of a November trial.
Epstein stuck his deal with the feds in exchange for pleading guilty to prostitution charges in Florida. US District Judge Alison Nathan ruled in April that the agreement did not cover co-conspirators or apply to prosecutors in Manhattan.
Cosby’s 2005 deal led to his testimony in a civil lawsuit by Constand, which ended with a settlement of around $3 million. Prosecutors used the incriminating testimony — in which Cosby admitted that he used to offer quaaludes, a powerful sedative, to women he wanted to have sex with — as part of the criminal case against him. But the Pennsylvania high court ruled they could not do that, and overturned Cosby’s conviction.
With Post wires