Is Ghislaine Maxwell a U.S. Citizen? Inside the Details of Jeffrey Epstein’s Accomplice
In June 2022, Ghislaine Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted for a host of charges related to the sex trafficking ring.
Published July 16 2025, 11:03 a.m. ET

As the Jeffrey Epstein files have once again become a hot topic of conversation due to the recent developments within the Trump administration, many have renewed their interest in the late disgraced figure and his main accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, as they wonder if the currently imprisoned European is also a U.S. citizen.
In June 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of a host of charges related to the sex trafficking ring orchestrated by former romantic interest Jeffrey Epstein.

Is Ghislaine Maxwell a U.S. citizen?
According to the Wall Street Journal, Maxwell has British and French citizenship and is also a naturalized U.S. citizen.
She was born in France in 1961 and later became a very prominent socialite in London in the 1980s before eventually making her way stateside to New York City, where she officially moved in 1991 after the death of her wealthy publishing magnate father, Robert Maxwell.

What happened with Ghislaine Maxwell in July 2025?
On Monday, July 14, the Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to deny Maxwell's appeal to her conviction on sex trafficking charges, according to ABC News. "That contention is incorrect, and petitioner does not show that it would succeed in any court of appeals," U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote to the court regarding Maxwell.
The basis of her appeal centers on her contention that “the language of Epstein's non-prosecution agreement (NPA) limited his protection to the Southern District of Florida, whereas the language of the co-conspirator clause should have been read to prohibit her prosecution in any federal district,” per the outlet.
"Despite the existence of a non-prosecution agreement promising in plain language that the United States would not prosecute any co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein, the United States in fact prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell as a co-conspirator of Jeffrey Epstein," Maxwell's April petition via her attorneys read.

Following the controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s decision not to release the Epstein files, David Oscar Markus, an attorney for Maxwell, spoke out.
"I'd be surprised if President Trump knew his lawyers were asking the Supreme Court to let the government break a deal,” he said via statement, per ABC News. “He's the ultimate dealmaker — and I'm sure he'd agree that when the United States gives its word, it should keep it. With all the talk about who's being prosecuted and who isn't, it's especially unfair that Ghislaine Maxwell remains in prison based on a promise the government made and broke."

Maxwell is currently serving her 20-year prison sentence in FCI Tallahassee, a low-security prison, after being transferred from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn in July 2022.
As of now, she is set to be released from prison in 2037. Last fall, in September 2024, Maxwell's conviction was upheld by three judges from the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, according to Reuters. If her most recent appeal is denied, it’s possible that Maxwell will find an additional appeal in her case.