Ghislaine Maxwell hired a new defense lawyer who once represented one of Osama bin Laden's associates

• In court papers filed earlier this week, attorney Bobbi Sternheim said she would represent Ghislaine Maxwell in her sex-trafficking case.
• Maxwell is being held at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center as she awaits trial on charges of sex-trafficking girls as young as 14 for her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein.
• Sternheim is a trial lawyer who once represented Osama Bin Laden associate Khaled al-Fawwaz.

Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in jail awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking girls as young as 14 for her former boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein, has hired a new defense lawyer.

In court documents filed earlier this week and reviewed by Insider, attorney Bobbi Sternheim said she would appear as counsel for Maxwell in her sex-trafficking case.

In one of her most high-profile cases, Sternheim represented Osama Bin Laden associate Khaled al-Fawwaz, who in 2015 was convicted of four counts tied to 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, in which 224 people were killed.

At the time, according to the New York Post, Sternheim said she was "disappointed" by the conviction.

Fasulo, Braverman and Di Maggio, LLP, where Sternheim works, describes her as a "highly respected and seasoned trial lawyer, advocating for her clients both inside and outside the courtroom."

"Among her notable criminal cases, Bobbi has tried international organized crime and racketeering conspiracies, international terrorism offenses, international telemarketing fraud, capital murder, and interstate transport of pornographic media," Sternheim's bio says.

Sternheim is also the first and only woman to be recognized with a New York Criminal Bar Association's Award for Excellence in the Profession, her firm said.

"Apart from successful verdicts and settlements, dismissals and favorable sentences, Bobbi counts among her proudest professional experiences having coached a young pro se defendant with a 9th grade education to acquittal on federal charges and a 50-year-old woman to parole following 30 years of a life sentence in state prison and multiple denials by the Parole Board," her firm said.

Fasulo, Braverman and Di Maggio, LLP, did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment on Sternheim taking Maxwell on as a client.

Maxwell was arrested in July and is being held at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.

She's accused of helping Epstein recruit, groom, and sexually abuse minors, as well as participating in abuse herself, and is being held without bail.

• Read more:
• Prosecutors say Ghislaine Maxwell is being kept in isolation in jail for her own safety
• Ghislaine Maxwell says she is being mistreated in jail and that she should be taken out of solitary confinement
• Alan Dershowitz calls Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre a 'serial liar' while once again denying he ever had sex with her
• Newly unveiled emails between Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell shows how the 2 worked together to discredit his accusers