Ghislaine Maxwell pleaded with President Donald Trump to free her from prison after being questioned by his administration about Jeffrey Epstein.

The disgraced British heiress, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for procuring underage girls for the late paedophile, asked the US Supreme Court and the president for leniency.

“We are appealing not only to the Supreme Court but to the president himself to recognise how profoundly unjust it is to scapegoat Ghislaine Maxwell for Epstein’s crimes, especially when the government promised she would not be prosecuted,” attorney David Oscar Markus said in a statement.

Maxwell’s lawyers appeared to be capitalising on the Trump administration’s recent interest in their client’s case, filing a motion on Monday urging the Supreme Court to move forward with the appeal they filed in April.

Maxwell, the financier’s ex-girlfriend, has long argued her 2021 sex-trafficking conviction should be overturned because of a 2007 plea deal that promised immunity for Epstein’s accomplices. She is the only person who has been convicted in connection with his crimes.

Flanked by Sir Keir Starmer at his Turnberry golf course in Scotland on Monday, Mr Trump again refused to rule out pardoning Maxwell.

Responding to a question on the prospect of granting clemency to Maxwell, he said: “Nobody’s asked me about it. It’s in the news about that, that aspect of it, but right now, it would be inappropriate to talk about it.”