In court papers filed on Friday, the lawyers said the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein is in a “similar situation” as Cosby because both were covered by non-prosecution deals at the time they were charged in sex abuse cases.

Cosby was convicted in 2018 on charges of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand in 2004, when she was a Temple University employee. He was released earlier this week after Pennsylvania's highest court found prosecutors violated his rights by reneging on an apparent promise not to charge him.

The same principle applies to Maxwell’s case because she was covered by a non-prosecution agreement Epstein signed with federal prosecutors in Florida in the late 2000s, her lawyers said.