Ghislaine Maxwell has today filed a last-minute attempt to stop the unsealing of bombshell court documents that could expose ‘intrusive’ details about her sex life.
The 58-year-old’s legal team filed a letter on Wednesday to New York judge Loretta Preska asking her to reconsider unsealing Maxwell’s deposition from a civil defamation case against Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
They also requested to stop the deposition of a Jane Doe from being unsealed.
Maxwell’s lawyers argued the depositions were confidential and under a protective order and federal prosecutors in her sex trafficking case wrongfully used the documents to form her charges, including perjury.
The cache of newly unsealed documents were set to be released no later than Thursday, Judge Preska ruled last week.
Maxwell’s lawyers had fought to keep the documents under seal, calling the depositions a ‘series of (efforts) to compel Maxwell to answer intrusive questions about her sex life’.
The latest filing comes as Epstein victims are fearful that sex tapes and photographs featuring them being abused could be described as part of the unsealed evidence and eventually shown in court during Maxwell’s criminal trial, DailyMail.com can disclose.
Ghislaine Maxwell has today filed a last-minute attempt to stop the unsealing of bombshell court documents that could expose ‘invasive’ details about her sex life
Although the case is separate from the criminal proceedings against Maxwell, who is accused of procuring girls as young as 14 for Epstein to abuse, there is some overlap as one of the unsealed deposition files is linked to her perjury charge.
Maxwell’s lawyers wrote: ‘Ms. Maxwell’s two deposition transcripts were designated “Confidential” and subject to the protection of the Protective Order. Both transcripts ended up in the hands of the government, which used them to bring an indictment against Ms. Maxwell, charging her with, among other things, perjury in her deposition testimony.
‘This is a serious violation of the Protective Order, and merits the commencement of contempt proceedings.’
‘We also write to seek reconsideration of the Court’s July 23, 2020 ruling concluding that the transcripts of Ms. Maxwell’s April 2016 deposition and Doe 1’s deposition should be unsealed in their entirety (with the exception of non-party names). We recognize that a reconsideration motion is an extraordinary request, but we suggest it is appropriate under the circumstances.
‘There are new facts since Ms. Maxwell lodged her objections to the unsealing of the transcript of her deposition, and there is a need to correct clear error or prevent manifest injustice relating to the unsealing of the transcript.
‘We respectfully request that the Court keep sealed Ms. Maxwell’s and Doe 1’s deposition transcripts and any sealed or redacted order or paper that quotes from or discloses information from the transcripts (“deposition material”).
‘We do not seek unnecessary delay; however, if the Court denies our request for reconsideration, we do wish to seek relief from the Second Circuit. Accordingly, in the event the Court denies this reconsideration request, we ask that the Court stay any unsealing of the deposition material for at least two business days to give us time to apply to the Second Circuit for a stay of the unsealing order pending appeal.’
Epstein victims are fearful that sex tapes and photographs featuring them being abused could be described as part of the unsealed evidence and eventually shown in court during Maxwell’s criminal trial, DailyMail.com can disclose. Pictured: Epstein survivor Virginia Roberts Giuffre
As interest in Maxwell’s case grows, Epstein victims are terrified that twisted sex tapes and photographs featuring them being abused could be shown in court during Maxwell’s criminal trial.
High profile attorney Lisa Bloom, who represents six Epstein victims, says her clients are ‘very concerned’ and she hopes prosecutors will notify victims first if any footage of them is to be used in court.
‘We know that the FBI got hundreds of photos a year ago, but what about the recordings, what about the videos? We know that Epstein did record a lot,’ she said.
‘Even with the news of the photos, my clients were very concerned, ”are their nude photos of me in the hands of the FBI right now?”, they are very concerned about that, ‘do they show me underage in a sex act?’
‘My clients want to know if there are any images that were retrieved from Epstein’s home and that’s still something that causes them a lot of anguish even now a year later.
‘What’s more, should any of this footage be presented in court we would like to be notified first if any of our clients are depicted.’
Another attorney, Florida based lawyer Spencer Kuvin, who also reps six Epstein victims, said his clients are ‘incredibly embarrassed and upset’ that footage could be aired in a courtroom.
‘Any active prosecution that may involve video tapes or the fear of video tapes being utilized by the prosecution is going to bring about anxiety to my clients,’ he said.
‘Having said that my clients would want Ghislaine Maxwell to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as well as any co-conspirators.’
High profile attorney Lisa Bloom, who represents six Epstein victims, says her clients are ‘very concerned’ about the footage
Of the six young women Kuvin reps in the Epstein case two were involved in the original case against the now deceased billionaire financier in 2007/2008. One of these women was in the probable cause affidavit, Kuvin says.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘One of the things that my clients were worried about, even back then, was that there were cameras in Epstein’s home in Palm Beach that recorded various different sex acts that they may have been involved in and they were incredibly embarrassed and upset as young women that they would be seen in these images and that they may be used in any prosecution.’
The attorney added: ‘We would ask that if the federal government is in possession of any of this material that it be destroyed after the prosecution is complete.’
The upcoming release of the unsealed documents could include details about Maxwell’s sex life that her lawyers have previously tried to stop from being released, relating to a seven-hour, 418-page deposition Maxwell gave, which her legal team said was ‘extremely personal, confidential’.
They will also include communications between Maxwell and Epstein from January 2015 when Roberts made explosive allegations about them in court papers.
In the papers Roberts claimed she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times when she was just 17 at Epstein’s command.
The case ruled on last Thursday was originally brought by Roberts, now a 36-year-old mother-of-three who lives in Australia and goes by her married name Virginia Giuffre.
The upcoming release of the unsealed documents could include details about Maxwell’s sex life that her lawyers have previously tried to stop from being released, relating to a seven-hour, 418-page deposition Maxwell gave, which her legal team said was ‘extremely personal, confidential’
She sued Maxwell in 2015 for defamation because Maxwell accused her of lying.
Roberts said in court filings that Maxwell recruited her and other girls into a sex trafficking ring for ‘politically connected and financially powerful people’.
The case was settled in 2017 for an undisclosed sum but media organizations sued for documents in the case to be made public.
Judge Loretta Preska ruled last week that 80 documents – which will run to hundreds of pages – should be made public by Thursday
During last week’s hearing at Manhattan’s federal court, Judge Preska said Maxwell’s right to privacy was outweighed by the need for the documents to become public.
She went through the dozens of documents, which included Giuffre’s depositions and various dull-sounding legal papers.
The contents however could be explosive and may contain fresh evidence against the wealthy elite who socialized with Epstein.
The lawsuit to release the documents was originally filed by the Miami Herald and their reporter Julie Brown, whose series on Epstein called ‘Perversion of Justice’ in 2018 put renewed focus on the case and led to his arrest last July.
As a result there are thousands of pages of documents which are being released on a rolling basis.
Each time a person’s name comes up they are notified and given the chance to make objections to their name becoming public.
There were two John Does in this latest batch but they did not make any complaints when approached to make any comments, according to court filings.
The Second Circuit had already ordered 2,000 pages of documents to be made public and they were released last August, the day before Epstein killed himself.
The documents included the unpublished manuscript of a memoir from Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts which detailed her years of abuse by him.
The documents will also include communications between Maxwell and Epstein from January 2015 when Virginia Roberts made explosive allegations about them in court papers. In the papers Roberts claimed that she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew (pictured together) three times when she was 17 at Epstein’s command
There were depositions from Epstein’s pilots, his former associates and flight logs showing him traveling the globe with his victims and famous people such as Bill Clinton.
Among those who have taken an interest in the defamation case are lawyers for a ‘John Doe’ who appears to be somebody who will be featured in the documents.
His identity is unclear but the powerful men who have been accused of involvement with Epstein include former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barack.
On Monday, Maxwell’s legal team fought to have any incriminating nude photos and sexualized videos of Maxwell marked ‘highly confidential’ in her sex trafficking trial.
Prosecutors and Maxwell’s lawyers are currently hammering out an agreement on how sensitive documents in the high-profile case should be handled before they hand over to each other the evidence they plan to use at trial.
The reference to videos appears in a proposed version of the agreement lodged by Maxwell’s lawyers.
The proposed order says any ‘Highly Confidential Information’ either side plans to use in the case remains sealed and can only be viewed behind closed doors with lawyers present.
‘Highly Confidential Information contains nude, partially-nude, or otherwise sexualized images, videos, or other depictions of individuals,’ the court documents said.
The wording of the legal filing raises the prospect that the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York could be sitting on explicit photos and videos for their explosive case against Maxwell, the alleged madam to late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.