A federal judge in New York has signed an order that will unseal court documents that will unveil the many names associated with Jeffrey Epstein.
The documents are part of a settled civil lawsuit alleging Epstein’s one-time paramour Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving 20 years in prison, facilitated the sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre. However, the terms of the 2017 settlement were not disclosed.
Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and procuring girls for Epstein.
Those who did not successfully fight to keep their name from being disclosed in the civil case could see their name become public, which could also include Epstein’s victims, co-conspirators and innocent associates, ABC News reported.
Judge Loretta Preska set the release for Jan. 1, which gives time to those who don’t want to be revealed time to object to her ruling. Some people have already been publicly identified in association with the case.
The documents being unveiled may not say why a person is associated with the case. However, more than 150 people are expected to be identified in hundreds of court documents that may expose more about the disgraced Epstein’s sex trafficking of women and girls in New York, New Mexico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and elsewhere. Notably, certain minor victims will remain redacted.
Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, who died by suicide in his jail cell, was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with her long-time friend Epstein to recruit, groom and abuse minors. Earlier this year, she asked the court to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence. But federal prosecutors argued for the judge to uphold her conviction in June.
From 1994 to 2004, Maxwell and Epstein worked together to identify girls, groom them and then entice them to travel and transport them to Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and elsewhere, prosecutors said. The girls — some of whom were as young as 14 years old — were then sexually abused, often under the guise of a “massage,” they said.
Giuffre alleged in her lawsuit that Maxwell recruited her at the age of 16 to years of sexual servitude to Epstein. She also accused the two of directing her, between 2000 and 2002, to have sex with a number of their prominent associates, including Britain’s Prince Andrew. Her lawsuit was settled in May 2017, just before a trial was to begin.
Prince Andrew had repeatedly denied the allegations and attacked Giuffre’s credibility and motives but also settled the suit last year.
