Story by CNN
A federal judge in New York has ordered the names of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims and associates to be made public in 2024, according to documents.
The order, issued Monday by Judge Loretta A. Preska, is the latest filing in a settled case by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, an American woman who claimed Epstein sexually abused her while she was a minor and that Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime accomplice, aided in the abuse.
Epstein was indicted in 2019 on federal charges of operating a sex trafficking ring in which he allegedly sexually abused dozens of underage girls.
The multi-millionaire died by suicide in jail while awaiting trial. Prosecutors in New York indicted Maxwell on sex trafficking charges involving multiple victims. She was convicted last year.
While the 2015 defamation lawsuit brought by Giuffre was settled in 2017 and placed under a protective order, parts of it have been unsealed since then as Giuffre, Maxwell and a number of third-party figures have debated what should and shouldn’t be released to the public.
In August 2019, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unsealed hundreds of pages of documents a day before Epstein died in prison, ruling that the district court judge had improperly sealed hundreds of filings. That judge had since died.
The appeals court then remanded the case back to the district court to go through the rest of the documents individually and determine what could be unsealed.
Judge Preska, who has since taken over the case, ruled for the unsealing of more documents in July 2020, including Maxwell’s 2016 deposition related to the lawsuit as well as emails and depositions by others.
Many of the alleged victims gave public interviews and have already been identified by the media, while others “did not raise an objection” to the unsealing of documents, according to Preska’s Monday order.
Preska is giving the Jane and John Does 14 days to file an appeal before the parties confer and make the documents public.
As for the Epstein associates, it’s unclear how many have been investigated for alleged wrongdoing or will be.
Some of the victims will remain unnamed, due to the sensitive nature of the crimes and sexual nature abuse of minors, the order says.
The order says Epstein’s associates, one of whom played a role in his sex trafficking crimes and another whose name came up in a criminal trial, will also have their documents unsealed “in full.”
Some of the documents to be released include information of those who have died, including one person who died in 2018 but was widely associated with Epstein and featured in photos at Epstein’s island residence on Little St. James in the US Virgin Islands, the order says. They also include people associated with Maxwell.
After Epstein’s death, the US attorney’s office in Manhattan indicated it would focus on the conspiracy charge against Epstein, which accused him of working with employees and associates to operate a vast sex-trafficking ring involving dozens of girls. Epstein pleaded guilty to two Florida prostitution charges in 2008 and served 13 months in prison.
The conspiracy count could allow prosecutors to charge anyone else involved in the scheme.
CNN
