NEW YORK, Aug. 26 -- The last legal avenue Ghislaine Maxwell had to challenge her sex trafficking conviction closed on Monday when a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed her petition to overturn the verdict, calling her arguments meritless and largely barred by the same appeals process she had already exhausted without success.

Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York delivered a ruling that left no ambiguity about the quality of Maxwell's legal position. "Maxwell's claims are all meritless and all or almost all are frivolous," he wrote. "The vast majority are procedurally barred, either because Maxwell made and lost the same arguments on direct appeal, or because she could have made such arguments on appeal but elected...