Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell has ended her effort to keep the names of people linked to her in a civil case shielded from the public.
After reviewing objections to the unsealing made by the John Does, Maxwell’s lawyer Laura Menninger informed U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska, a George H.W. Bush nominee, in a recent letter that Maxwell “does not wish to further address those objections.”
“Each of the listed Does has counsel who have ably asserted their own respective privacy rights. Ms. Maxwell therefore leaves it to this Court to conduct the appropriate review consistent with the Order and Protocol for Unsealing Decided Motions,” Menninger added.
The identities in question are parties connected to a civil lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre against Maxwell in 2015 accusing her of facilitating the sexual abuse of Giuffre and making defamatory statements about her. The suit was settled in 2017, but Giuffre has been trying since then, along with the Miami Herald and other parties, to convince the court to unseal the identities of people named in filings in the case.
The late U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet described at one point the sealed documents in the case as including a “range of allegations of sexual acts involving Plaintiff and non-parties to this litigation, some famous, some not; the identities of non-parties who either allegedly engaged in sexual acts with Plaintiff or who allegedly facilitated such acts.”
Maxwell and her attorneys had repeatedly urged the judge not to unseal the identities, arguing in part that some of them testified because they were promised confidentiality and that making the names public would compromise her right to a fair trial.
Maxwell was convicted last month of sex trafficking charges in a separate, criminal case, though she may be headed to a fresh trial.
Maxwell’s deposition, taken in 2016 for the Giuffre case, was unsealed last year, but many of the materials have remained shielded under orders from Preska and Sweet.
Sixteen of the John Does have also objected to making their identities public in filings entered by their attorneys, while others haven’t responded.
