NEW YORK (Reuters) – Dozens of new documents related to Ghislaine Maxwell’s dealings with Jeffrey Epstein were publicly released on Thursday, as the British socialite defends herself against criminal charges she aided the late financier’s sexual abuse of girls.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan had on July 23 ordered the release of large portions of more than 80 documents from a 2015 civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein of having kept her as a “sex slave” with Maxwell’s assistance.
On Thursday, Maxwell filed an emergency motion with the federal appeals court in Manhattan to block the release of two additional documents, including an April 2016 deposition related to her sex life and a deposition by an unnamed Epstein accuser.
Lawyers for Maxwell said making her deposition public could make it ‘difficult if not impossible” to find an impartial jury for her criminal trial.
The two depositions, and materials that quote from or disclose information contained in them, were expected to remain sealed at least until Monday, depending on how the appeals court rules.
Materials covered by Preska’s July 23 order included flight logs from Epstein’s private jets; and police reports from Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a home, among other documents.
Maxwell, 58, has pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit and eventually abuse three girls from 1994 to 1997, and committing perjury by denying her involvement under oath.
She was arrested on July 2, and has been housed in a Brooklyn jail after a judge called her a flight risk. Maxwell’s trial is scheduled for next July.
Epstein was found hanged at age 66 last August in a Manhattan jail, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges for abusing women and girls in Manhattan and Florida from 2002 to 2005. He had also pleaded not guilty.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
