Newly unsealed court documents reveal Jeffrey Epstein told Ghislaine Maxwell she had ‘done nothing wrong’ and to ‘start acting like it’ after she was sued by Virginia Roberts in 2015.
Dozens of documents relating to the civil defamation lawsuit against Maxwell were publicly released on Thursday, hours after a district judge denied her last ditch attempt to keep them sealed.
Among the trove of court papers was an email exchange between the pair in January 2015, in which Epstein advised her to carry on normally and insisted she had nothing to worry about.
Newly unsealed court documents show Ghislaine Maxwell lied when she said she hadn’t had contact with Jeffrey Epstein in over a decade, during her bid for bail
Court papers pertaining to a 2015 deposition civil defamation case against Maxwell included a January 2015 email Epstein sent to Maxwell insisting she had ‘done nothing wrong’
‘You have done nothing wrong and i woudl [sic] urge you to start acting like it,’ the billionaire pedophile wrote.
‘go outside, head high, not as an esacping [sic] convict. go to parties. deal with it’, he added.
The email was in response to a message Maxwell had sent the previous day saying she ‘would appreciate it if shelley would come out and say she was your g’friend.’
‘I think she was from end 99 to 2002,’ she wrote.
Shelley’s identity is unclear, however the time frame mentioned by Maxwell appears to correspond with abuse allegations made by one of Epstein’s accusers.
‘Ok with me,’ Epstein replied.
The email exchange also appears to confirm Maxwell lied in her bid for bail, during which she claimed she hadn’t spoken to Epstein in over a decade.
A separate email exchange from days earlier showed Epstein emailed Maxwell what appeared to be a court statement proclaiming her innocence, but was written from her point of view
The trove of documents were publicly released hours after a district judge denied her last ditch attempt to keep them sealed
Days earlier, Epstein had emailed Maxwell what appeared to be a court statement proclaiming her innocence, which read as if it was written by her.
‘Since JE was charged in 2007 for solicitation of a prostitute I have been the target of outright lies, innuendo, slander, defamation and salacious gossip and harrassment; headlines made up of quotes I have never given, statement I have never made,’ it reads.
‘I have never been a party in any criminal action pertaining to JE.’
The statement also claimed Maxwell had been in a ‘very long-term committed relationship to another man’ at the time of Epstein’s conviction.
‘Whilst I remained on friendly terms with him up until his plea, I have had limited contact since,’ it continues.
The papers pertain to depositions from when Maxwell was sued by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts
It comes after 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 civil lawsuit brought by Roberts, 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.