Some names of more than 150 associates of the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein are slated to be revealed on Wednesday, despite an appeal from a Jane Doe, a woman seeking to shield her identity from the public.
“The unsealing is expected to begin today,” Ed Friedland, the district executive for the Southern District of New York, told the Washington Examiner, adding that a judge’s order to delay the release of Jane Doe’s name only applies to her and not the dozens of other names on the list.
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Documents containing the names of Epstein’s associates are expected to begin appearing on the docket in the case Giuffre v. Maxwell in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. A judge granted a 30-day extension to Jane Doe to consider her appeal to remain confidential, according to a Dec. 21, 2023, court document that was not made public until Tuesday.
It is not immediately clear what time the names will appear on the court’s docket or how many will be included in the first batch of unsealed documents.
The Jane Doe, No. 107 on the list, argued that she could face physical harm if the list of names is released because she lives in a “culturally conservative country and lives in fear of her name being released,” her attorney Richard Levitt said.
District Judge Loretta Preska on Dec. 18, 2023, issued an order for the names to be released beginning Monday, though the court was closed because it was New Year’s Day.
Jane Doe’s appeal stems from a settled civil lawsuit that Virginia Giuffre filed against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell in 2015. The Miami Herald has sought to unseal documents pertaining to the names since 2018, which Preska finally agreed to do in her order late last month.
Giurffre alleges Epstein and Maxwell pressured her as a teenager to have sex with powerful men, including Prince Andrew and lawyer Alan Dershowitz, though both have long denied the claims. She has also said she was told by Maxwell that former President Bill Clinton went to Epstein’s private home in the Virgin Islands.
A lawsuit Giuffre brought against Prince Andrew later was settled out of court, and she also settled with Dershowitz in November 2022, admitting she may have been mistaken when identifying the attorney as an Epstein associate. A spokesperson for Clinton said in 2019 that the former president knew nothing of Epstein’s “terrible crimes.”
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Preska has said several notable names from the list have already been revealed in media interviews or had their names put in other public court documents pertaining to Epstein.
Levitt has until Jan. 22 to submit an affidavit to support Doe’s claim that her name becoming public places her in harm’s way and offer details about any threatening or hateful messages she has received.
