A federal judge ordered the unsealing of allegations made by an accuser against both deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his longtime associate and alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, with the documents to be released possibly within a week.
Judge Loretta Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled Thursday that the public has a right to know about the allegations made against Epstein and Maxwell by accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, 36, who said that Epstein sexually abused her when she was underage and that Maxwell helped the financier commit his crimes.
“In the context of this case, especially its allegations of sex trafficking of young girls, the court finds any minor embarrassment or annoyance resulting from Ms. Maxwell’s mostly nontestimony is far outweighed by the presumption of public access,” Preska said during a phone hearing on Thursday.
The trove of deposition records and witness statements is related to a 2015 defamation lawsuit brought by Giuffre and includes currently sealed allegations made against Maxwell, former Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who has denied any wrongdoing, and others. Maxwell’s lawyers have a week to appeal.
Epstein, a registered sex offender, was arrested in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking and conspiracy charges for allegedly abusing girls as young as 14. The 66-year-old was found dead in his Manhattan prison cell in August, which the New York City medical examiner determined to be a suicide.
Maxwell, 58, was arrested in early July and has been charged with conspiring with Epstein to recruit, groom, and sexually abuse underage girls in the 1990s and with perjury in depositions regarding Epstein. She was deemed a “risk of flight” by the judge presiding over the criminal case and will be incarcerated through her July 2021 trial.
Giuffre’s lawsuit against Maxwell was confidentially settled in 2017, but now, the records from that court battle, including a deposition by Giuffre, flight logs, and police reports, will be made public if Maxwell doesn’t win her appeal. Maxwell’s lawyers said Thursday that they had “grave concerns” about her ability to receive “an impartial trial” thanks to “the intense media scrutiny around anything that is unsealed.”
Giuffre alleges Epstein and another longtime Maxwell friend, the British royal Prince Andrew, abused her when she was underage, accusing the prince of raping her at Maxwell’s home in London and Epstein’s homes in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands when she was 17 years old. Maxwell and Andrew have both denied these claims.
The Duke of York invited Epstein and Maxwell to royal residences such as Windsor Castle, visited Epstein’s private island, and stayed at his homes many times over the years, including in 2010 — after Epstein’s sex offender conviction.
The Justice Department is seeking an interview with the British royal.
