A U.S. District Judge has ordered that previously-sealed court documents from a previous case involving Ghislaine Maxwell are to be made public. Judge Loretta Preska announced the ruling on Thursday, which pertains to a 2015 defamation case that was settled in 2017.
On Thursday, Preska ruled to have the documents related to a 2015 defamation case open to the public “within a week,” according to CNN. The case itself was brought forward by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed Jeffrey Epstein sexually abused her while she was a minor and that Maxwell was involved. The documents will include Maxwell’s 2016 deposition where she apparently denies knowing if Epstein had a scheme to recruit underage girls for sex. Giuffre’s deposition is included, as well as other anonymous women with similar claims against Epstein.
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In her ruling, Preska said that the public’s right to the information contained in the documents outweighed any “annoyance or embarrassment” that Maxwell might incur as a result. “In the context of this case, especially its allegations of sex trafficking of young girls, the court finds any minor embarrassment or annoyance resulting from Ms. Maxwell’s mostly non-testimony… is far outweighed by the presumption of public access.”
Maxwell was arrested by the FBI on July 2, after an alleged attempt to evade authorities by way of tin foil. She’s facing four counts of sex trafficking and two counts of perjury, stemming from her time as an Epstein associate. She’s being accused of helping her one-time boyfriend groom underage girls for sexual encounters with adults. Following her attorney’s plea to have her wait out her time ahead of the trial in a nearby luxury hotel was also rejected by the court due to her being a flight risk, prompting Maxwell to burst out in tears.
Instead, Maxwell will wait out the year ahead of her pending trial in July of 2021 at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. She’s currently being moved cell-to-cell to avoid any possible altercations and has been given paper clothes to wear in order to avoid a possible suicide attempt on her part. Epstein himself was arrested in July of 2019, then found dead of an apparent suicide in his cell roughly a month later.
President Donald Trump also wished her well during her incarceration at a recent press conference. Though he claimed he hadn’t been following the case, he admitted he’d known her “for many years.”
