(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 02, 2020, Acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, announces charges against Ghislaine Maxwell during a press conference in New York City. - Maxwell cited a traumatic childhood and vulnerability to Jeffrey Epstein in a plea for leniency two weeks before her scheduled court sentencing for child sex trafficking. In a brief filed late on June 15, 2022, Maxwell's lawyers urged Judge Alison Nathan to sentence the disgraced British socialite to less than the probation department's recommended 20 years. Maxwell, 60, was convicted late last year of recruiting and grooming young girls to be sexually abused by the late US financier Epstein. (Photo by Johannes EISELE / AFP)