Judge assails Maxwell as sealed documents emerge
A much-anticipated batch of newly unsealed documents from a settled defamation suit began trickling out Thursday night over the objections of Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite accused of sex trafficking and alleged to be the madam of disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
One of the first documents involved an email from Epstein to Maxwell complaining that the news media had been printing lies about him since the plea deal in Palm Beach court that spared him a federal prison sentence. More documents were expected to emerge throughout the evening.
Maxwell, awaiting trial in a federal prosecution, had delayed the planned release of the documents from a 2015 civil suit by filing objections at the last minute, provoking the ire of
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska.
That irritated the judge, who ruled last week that the documents should be unsealed.
“The Court is troubled — but not surprised — that Ms. Maxwell has yet again sought to muddy the water as the clock clicks closer to midnight,” Preska wrote in a filing denying a request from Maxwell’s lawyers for an emergency phone conference.
The judge had allowed two key depositions to be exempt from release while Maxwell filed an appeal Thursday with the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. But Preska ordered a second large tranche of documents from the case settled in 2017 unsealed and released Thursday night.
Last August, the court unsealed nearly 2,000 documents in the defamation suit involving Virginia Giuffre, who alleges Maxwell recruited her and others who were underage for sex with Epstein and powerful men. The documents
Maxwell provided a detailed picture of Maxwell’s alleged obsessive quest to procure girls to satisfy Epstein’s insatiable sexual appetite.
The earlier documents also are included the names of a number of men who Giuffre said she and other victims were directed to have sex with, including former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Hyatt hotels magnate Tom Pritzker, the late scientist Marvin Minsky, modeling scout Jean-Luc Brunel, and prominent hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin.
Giuffre has said she was directed to have sex with prominent defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, who previously represented Epstein, as well as Prince Andrew. A picture of Giuffre, Maxwell and Prince Andrew has been seared into the public consciousness. All the men have denied the claims and Giuffre and Dershowitz are suing each other for defamation.
All have denied Giuffre’s allegations.
Maxwell was arrested on July 2 at a secluded 156acre estate in New Hampshire. She was charged with four counts of sex trafficking of a minor and two counts of perjury, related to statements she made in connection with the Giuffre lawsuit.
Her lawyers have argued that the perjury charges come from protected depositions in the civil lawsuit, but they have not provided proof that they were shared and not the product of a subpoena.
The criminal sex trafficking charges stemmed from Maxwell’s alleged recruitment and grooming of three girls between 1994 and 1997 to be abused by Epstein. In one case, Maxwell allegedly participated in the abuse herself.
“Maxwell’s presence as an adult woman helped put the victims at ease as Maxwell and Epstein intended,” said Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, in announcing the charges against Maxwell at a news conference in July.