Ghislaine Maxwell & Jeffrey Epstein
More transparency is imminent in the long-settled defamation lawsuit against accused sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, with a federal judge ordering the release of a deposition on Monday featuring the testimony of an unidentified “Doe 1.”
“Having received no objection from Does 1 or 2, the transcript of Doe 1’s deposition and materials quoting or disclosing information from that transcript… shall be posted on the public docket no later than Monday, November 23rd, at 9:00 a.m.,” U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska wrote in a 5-page order on Friday.
Neither of the “Does” has been identified, but both have been given ample opportunity to object to the release of information that the Second Circuit tasked Judge Preska with unsealing back in August 2019.
That ordered followed watershed publication of the Miami Herald’s series “Perversion of Justice,” which renewed attention to dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s 2008 plea deal and has been widely credited for his prosecution and Maxwell’s.
Following the exposé, the Herald went to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to unseal broad swaths of the court record in alleged victim Virginia Giuffre’s lawsuit claiming Maxwell defamed her by denying that she made her Epstein’s “sex slave.” Giuffre’s settlement with Maxwell kept much of the court record under wraps for years, but a Second Circuit ruling in the Herald’s favor has led to increasing sunlight on the case ever since.
In July, Judge Preska ordered the release of an email correspondence from five years ago showing what appeared to be a press statement in Maxwell’s voice—only it was written by Epstein to her.
“Since JE was charged in 2007 for solicitation of a prostitute I have been the target of outright lies, innuendo, slander, defamation and salacious gossip and harassment,” Epstein wrote “GMax” in an email dated Jan. 21, 2015.
The message undercut Maxwell’s legal defense because she had claimed the two of them had been out of contact for more than a decade.
On Oct. 22, Maxwell’s deposition from the old defamation case was made public, showing what prosecutors allege to be perjury.
“Did Jeffrey Epstein have a scheme to recruit underaged girls for sexual massages?” asked Sigrid McCawley, at the time an attorney for her prominent accuser Virginia Giuffre. “If you know.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Maxwell responded.
Federal prosecutors quoted the exchange in one of their charges of false statements.
Read the 5-page order below:
[image of Maxwell via Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images; image of Epstein via mugshot]
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