Ghislaine Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to helping Jeffrey Epstein recruit and abuse three girls.
New York:
Documents on the relationship between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were made public Thursday by a US court, where the British socialite faces criminal charges for helping the late financier to sexually abuse girls. Among the documents released was an email correspondence between the two in early 2015, including an email in which Epstein told Maxwell she had “done nothing wrong”.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska had ordered the documents released on Thursday, saying the public’s right to see them outweighed Maxwell’s interests in keeping them under seal.
However, two depositions remain under seal after Maxwell filed an emergency petition with the Manhattan Federal Court of Appeals earlier Thursday to prevent them from becoming public. This court has not yet ruled and the depositions will remain sealed until at least Monday.
Maxwell’s attorneys have said that in one of those depositions, filed in April 2016, Maxwell was asked “intrusive” questions about his sex life, and that his release could make it “difficult, if not impossible”. obtaining a fair trial. The second is a deposition from an unnamed Epstein accuser. Maxwell’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment after the documents were unsealed.
The cache of documents released Thursday and the depositions that remain secret were part of a civil libel lawsuit now settled against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who said she was underage when Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” with the help from Maxwell.
A lawyer for Giuffre did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Maxwell, 58, pleaded not guilty to helping Epstein recruit and eventually abuse three girls from 1994 to 1997, and committing perjury by denying his involvement under oath. She was arrested on July 2 at a New Hampshire home where prosecutors said she was in hiding. Maxwell was held in a Brooklyn jail after a judge refused her bail, calling her flight risk. His criminal trial is scheduled for next July.
Epstein was found hanged at age 66 last August in a Manhattan jail, awaiting trial for sex trafficking for the abuse of women and girls in Manhattan and Florida from 2002 to 2005. He also pleaded not guilty.
CORRESPONDENCE
Pending Maxwell’s appeals, Preska had ordered the release of more than 80 documents in all, including the flight logs of Epstein’s private jets; and police reports from Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a home. Among the documents released Thursday were emails from January 2015 between Epstein and Maxwell, identified as “jeffrey E” and “Gmax” or “G Maxwell” respectively. “You didn’t do anything wrong and I would [sic] urges you to start acting like this, “Epstein wrote on Jan. 25, 2015.” Go outside with your head held high, not like a leak [sic] the condemned goes to the parties to deal with it. “
Epstein sent the email a day after Maxwell said she would appreciate it if another woman, identified by one name, “come out and say she was your girlfriend – I think she was from. late 99 to 2002. “
Maxwell’s lawyers have sought to keep their client away from Epstein in their unsuccessful efforts to secure bail. In a July 10 bail application, lawyers said the media focused on Maxwell after Epstein’s death, “wrongly trying to replace her with Epstein – even though she hadn’t had no contact with Epstein for more than a decade, “had never charged with a felony or found responsible in civil litigation and has consistently denied allegations of misconduct.
Other unsealed documents included emails from Giuffre to the FBI in 2014, including when she expressed interest in the FBI pursuing a case against Epstein and proving “how much pedophilia has occurred by Jeffrey and the many other monsters he forced w [sic] underage girls. “
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
