New documents about dealings between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffery Epstein were unsealed on Thursday and publicly released by a U.S. Court, where Maxwell faces criminal charges for her role in Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls.
What We Know:
- U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered the documents to be released on Thursday after determining that the public’s right to see them outweighed Maxwell’s interests in keeping them sealed.
- In total, 80 documents were released. This included flight logs from Epstein’s private jets and police reports from Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a home.
- Among the documents were also emails between Maxwell and Epstein in 2015 in which Epstein told Maxwell she had “done nothing wrong”. The email correspondence also includes what appears to be a statement for Maxwell, written by Epstein, in which she slams the press and denies any participation in a sex-trafficking scandal.
- Maxwell had previously claimed that she had not been in touch with Epstein in more than a decade in an attempt to win bail. Her attempt failed and these new documents directly contradict past statements.
- Two depositions remained sealed after Maxwell filed an emergency motion with the federal appeals court in Manhattan earlier on Thursday to keep them from being publicly released. Lawyers for Maxwell have said that one of those depositions, filed in April 2016, include Maxwell being asked “intrusive” questions concerning her sex life. They argued that its release would make it “difficult if not impossible” for Maxwell to get a fair trial. The other deposition is by an unnamed Epstein accuser. That court has not yet made a ruling and the depositions will remain sealed until at least Monday.
- The documents released, as well as those that still remain sealed, were part of a now-settled 2015 civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre. Giuffre claimed she was underage when Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” with Maxwell’s assistance. She also describes being “sent by” Maxwell to have sex with various men under the guise of “massage”. Giuffre was previously an unnamed accuser until she publicly spoke out against Epstein, claiming to witness President Bill Clinton on Epstein’s private island and that she was passed on for sex with Britain’s Prince Andrew and lawyer Alan Dershowitz. The newly unsealed documents add more detail to Giuffre’s claims.
Earlier this month, Maxwell pleaded not guilty to six counts accusing her of grooming Epstein’s victims and perjuring herself to cover it up. Her trial has been scheduled to being next July.
