Ghislaine Maxwell, a longtime friend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has sparked more controversy by naming dozens of people she says were protected from prosecution in connection with Epstein's crimes.

According to the Daily Beast, the information came to light in a recent court filing as Maxwell tries to get her conviction overturned.

Maxwell is in federal prison for 20 years for crimes related to sex trafficking. She filed a habeas corpus petition saying that her prosecution was unfair. She said in the filing that other people connected to Epstein avoided legal trouble through undisclosed arrangements.

The Daily Beast said that Maxwell talked about "four potential 'co-conspirators' and '25 men'" who supposedly made "secret settlements" related to Epstein's abuse but were never charged. The filing doesn't name the people in public, but it says they got protections that Maxwell didn't get.

The new information has put more pressure on the Justice Department to explain why some Epstein-related records haven't been made public. The source brought up the broader implications of the filing and asked the main question that federal authorities are facing: "Who are these men, and why are they still being protected?"

The issue comes up because people are still criticizing the federal government for not fully disclosing information about Epstein's network, even though there have been efforts in Congress to make things more open.

In November, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which is meant to force the release of unclassified documents related to the case. The law that President Donald Trump signed requires the Department of Justice to release a set of documents.

ThePublication said that the law was meant to stop what critics call "institutional stonewalling" about Epstein's associates and any deals that might have kept them from being looked into. But the papers that Maxwell says show the alleged settlements have not yet been made public.

Maxwell's petition is part of a larger legal effort to overturn her conviction. She has said many times that it was unfair because Epstein agreed not to prosecute her in Florida in 2007. People have been critical of that deal for a long time because it was secret and too broad. It let Epstein avoid federal charges at the time.

Maxwell is still in jail, but her latest filing has gotten a lot of attention in Washington and beyond because it suggests that there are still issues with accountability that haven't been resolved since Epstein's death in 2019. Lawyers say that the claims, even if they can't be proven, show that the public still doesn't trust how the case was handled.

The Justice Department has not publicly responded to the specific claims made in Maxwell's petition. The publication noted that as the investigation heats up, lawmakers and advocates are once again calling for full compliance with transparency laws to find out if people connected to Epstein got special treatment.

In separate news, Ghislaine Maxwell is reportedly facing serious safety concerns after a mysterious late-night shooting and alleged attempted break-ins near her Texas prison camp, with sources describing the incidents as "highly suspicious" and warning her life could be in danger, according to reporting on Substack.