Highlights of newly unsealed documents in Ghislaine Maxwell case

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in New York has forced into the public domain a new cache of documents in the 2015 civil defamation case brought by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell. 

This case was settled and sealed in 2017. After a rollercoaster ride of legal motions, the court ordered that the case be unsealed in February 2019. 

The first round was released on Aug. 9, 2019, the day before Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York City after his arrest the month before for sex trafficking. 

The second release was expected later in 2019, but since Epstein's death, Maxwell's lawyers have fervently filed multiple motions asking the court not to release any more documents in light of the ongoing criminal investigation that stemmed from the charges against Epstein in July 2019.

Since Maxwell's indictment on July 2 on sex trafficking and perjury charges stemming from this defamation case, her lawyers have pleaded with the court not to release any more documents arguing that if they are released, she will be denied a fair trial in July 2021. The court disagreed. 

While some of the information and names released on Thursday night have been mentioned in the past, this trove sheds more light on Maxwell's role in the Epstein sex trafficking scandal. 

According to Giuffre's deposition, Maxwell was more than a madam and former girlfriend of Epstein.

Giuffre accuses Maxwell of participating in orgies, and from the description of the sexual escapades, Epstein and Maxwell's lives revolved around sex. 

"Ghislaine had sex with underage girls virtually everyday," claimed Giuffre.

Giuffre accused Maxwell of having sex with her personal assistant, Emmy Tayler, who now lives in Oxford, England.

Although there are 47 entries in this second batch of documents, some of which are nothing more than innocuous legal pleadings, the one entry of importance is Giuffre's 2016 deposition, in which she emphatically claimed that she was trafficked for sex by both Maxwell and Epstein to their friends all over the world. 

Maxwell's lawyer asked Giuffre, "Other than Glenn Dubin, Stephen Kaufmann, Prince Andrew, Jean-Luc Brunel, Bill Richardson, another prince, the large hotel chain owner and Marvin Minsky, is there anyone else that Ghislaine Maxwell directed you to go have sex with?"

"I am definitely sure there is," Giuffre replied. "But can I remember everybody's name? No."

A similar list of names appeared in the 2019 unsealed court documents in this same case. Many of those men have denied the allegations against them.

Former New Mexico Governor Richardson was mentioned in the 2019 released documents, and at that time he told NPR, "The charges are completely false." 

Giuffre also mentioned former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who also has denied having sex with her, as has Glenn Dubin. 

Prince Andrew gave an interview to the BBC in November 2019 and claimed he has "no recollection of ever meeting" Giuffre. 

One of the documents is an email from Epstein to Maxwell complaining that the news media had been printing lies about him since his 2007 plea deal in a Florida court that spared him from being prosecuted under a 53-page federal indictment for sex trafficking. 

The documents include a 2015 email exchange between Maxwell and Epstein, which seemingly serves as a prepared statement for Maxwell on how to respond to sexual allegations.

The date in January 2015 is a few weeks after one of Giuffre first shared her story with a British newspaper.

In another typo-filled email a few days later, "jeffrey E." writes to Maxwell in misspelled words: "You have done nothing wrong and i woudl urge you to start acting like it. go outside, head high, not as an esacping convict. go to parties. deal with it."

What is noteworthy about this particular email exchange is that Maxwell's attorneys claimed during her bail hearing that she had not had any contact with Epstein in over a decade.  

Giuffre has also accused renowned attorney Alan Dershowitz, who has emphatically denied ever meeting Maxwell. Dershowitz told Just the News in an interview when it was brought to his attention that his name was redacted in parts, and in other parts not redacted. "I want my name unredacted," he said. "The Judge made this decision. I will continue to waive my right to privacy for videotapes and photographs. I've done nothing wrong." 

Maxwell's lawyers asked Giuffre about Dershowitz in her deposition: 

Q: And where does Alan Dershowitz fit into that group of people?

A: Same. I can't tell you piece by piece by piece who — I know Glenn Dubin was first.

Q: Okay.

A: And I know Stephen Kaufmann was one of the first I was sent to. Alan Dershowitz could have been between there. Between, sorry, between Glenn and Stephen. The first time I was with Alan Dershowitz was in New York, so I wasn't actually sent to him.

It actually happened at one of Jeffrey's residences.

As of now, Maxwell's deposition and that of another unnamed party in this defamation case have not been released.

Maxwell's lawyers are appealing their unsealing. Maxwell's lawyers are arguing that they are "extremely personal, confidential and subject to considerable abuse by the media."

Judge Preska ruled on July 23 to unseal them, saying: "The court finds that the countervailing interests identified fail to rebut the presumption of public access."

If the Second Circuit Court of Appeals denies Maxwell's motion to keep the two remaining depositions sealed, they are expected to be released as early as next week.