Ghislaine Maxwell on Thursday made several moves in her fight to prevent a series of currently-sealed documents from being publicly released by day’s end. First, Maxwell’s legal team appealed a federal district judge’s decision ordering the release of the files. Hours later, one of her attorneys filed a letter to the same district judge claiming that the opposing party failed to properly redact the documents in accordance with the court’s order.
After a hearing last week, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York (SDNY) on Tuesday ordered multiple documents related to a now-settled defamation case against deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell to be released to the public no later than Thursday, July 30.
Per Preska’s order, the parties were tasked with redacting the documents of: (1) “personal identifying information as to any person mentioned in the documents,” (2) “the names of nonparties other than Does 1 and 2,” and (3) “other portions related to such nonparties’ specific conduct.”
In the letter, Maxwell’s attorney claimed that the redactions submitted to the court would fail to meet those standards.
“Plaintiff proposes to unseal significant portions of the testimony which would not only identify the Nonparty at issue, but also their alleged conduct, both as alleged perpetrators of sexual misconduct and also as alleged victims of such conduct,” her attorney Laura Menninger wrote.
The letter requests that the court allow Maxwell to submit her own redactions under seal before publicly releasing the documents.
Maxwell’s attorneys also filed to appeal the SDNY judge’s release of the documents; paperwork in that case was still being entered into the docket at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals at the time of this writing.
Preska, the district court judge, on Wednesday evening rejected a request from Maxwell’s attorneys to reconsider the original ruling. However, anticipating an appeal of her decision, Preska agreed to postpone the unsealing of some of the files.
The underlying case here is a defamation lawsuit filed by alleged Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, who has been speaking out since 2011 when the United Kingdom’s Mail on Sunday published an article alleging that Epstein and Maxwell furnished her to Prince Andrew while she was Epstein’s “sex slave.”
The still-sealed materials are widely believed to contain highly sensitive and likely embarrassing information about those who associated with Maxwell and Epstein.
The documents slated for release include Maxwell’s 2016 deposition, her correspondence with Epstein, and a deposition from attorney and former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz. Dershowitz has staunchly denied allegations that that he engaged in any sexual activity with any of the girls or women associated with Epstein.
Maxwell was arrested by federal authorities earlier this month and charged with enticing a minor to travel to engage in criminal sexual activity, transporting a minor with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, conspiracy to commit both of those offenses, and perjury in connection with a sworn deposition.
See below for two of Maxwell’s latest filings.
Maxwell SDNY Notice Appeal by Law&Crime on Scribd
S.D.N.Y._1 15-cv-07433-LAP_1083_0 by Law&Crime on Scribd
[photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images]