**Supreme Court Denies Ghislaine Maxwell's Appeal** WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. This decision came on the first day of the court's new term and effectively ends Maxwell's legal efforts to overturn her conviction related to sex trafficking. Maxwell's lawyers argued that she should not have been tried or convicted for her involvement in recruiting teenage girls for Epstein, a New York financier accused of sexual abuse. They claimed that a non-prosecution agreement from 2007, made between federal prosecutors in Miami and Epstein's legal team, protected her and other potential co-conspirators from federal charges. Despite these arguments, the federal appeals court in Manhattan upheld the legality of her prosecution. A jury found Maxwell guilty of multiple charges, including sex trafficking of a minor. Her trial included testimonies from four women who described their abuse as teenagers in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein's residences. Maxwell was recently transferred from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas. The reasons for this transfer have not been disclosed by either her legal team or the federal Bureau of Prisons. One of her attorneys, David Oscar Markus, stated that Maxwell is "innocent and never should have been tried, much less convicted." In July, Maxwell was interviewed by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche at a Florida courthouse. During this interview, she was granted limited immunity, allowing her to speak without the risk of prosecution for her statements, except in cases of falsehood. Records released in August indicated that she denied witnessing any inappropriate behavior involving former President Donald Trump. Epstein was arrested in 2019 on charges of sex trafficking and was accused of abusing numerous teenage girls. He died in a New York jail cell a month later, with investigators ruling his death a suicide. The Epstein case has been a point of contention for Trump's administration, particularly after the FBI and Justice Department announced in July that Epstein's death was a suicide, despite ongoing conspiracy theories. The announcement also clarified that a purported "client list" mentioned by Attorney General Pam Bondi did not exist and that no further documents from the investigation would be released. This lack of transparency has fueled outrage among conspiracy theorists and some Trump supporters who believed there was a government cover-up. Comments from officials, including FBI Director Kash Patel, who suggested that damaging information was being withheld, contributed to these beliefs. The Justice Department later stated that its review concluded no further disclosures were warranted, noting that much of the evidence was sealed to protect victims. In response to the backlash, Trump attempted to shift focus away from the Epstein case, dismissing inquiries about it during a White House Cabinet meeting and criticizing supporters who he claimed were falling for the "Jeffrey Epstein Hoax."