U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska verbally agreed to unseal documents including a previous Ghislaine Maxwell deposition, emails and other potentially incriminating evidence. That’s despite ordering the total destruction of all the files in another Jeffrey Epstein related case. She made the controversial decision after a brutal attack on the family of a federal judge in yet another case. We can expect to see something incriminating “within a week.” Unless Maxwell’s powerful lawyers win her appeal of the decision, of course.
Not afraid to unseal documents
When one door closes, another opens. Judge Preska “ruled on Thursday to publicly release documents that have been kept under seal in a case involving Ghislaine Maxwell.” She wasn’t intimidated by the murder of the son of one of her colleagues last week, in a professional looking ambush attack at the front door of their home, which also left the husband of the other judge critically injured, Judge Preska is not afraid to unseal controversial evidence.
She told the defense team they have a week to “pursue an appeal” but ordered counsel to get the documents ready for release while their appeal is pending, and to “have the documents ready to be posted within a week.” The decision to unseal the records came during an electronic teleconference. She won’t be accepting any package deliveries and nobody is getting close enough to shoot her or blow her up. She hopes.
The freshly released records are “connected to a 2015 defamation case brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claimed Epstein sexually abused her while she was a minor and that Maxwell aided in the abuse.” Giuffre settled that side case in 2017. One of the things that Judge Preska decided to unseal is “Maxwell’s 2016 deposition related to the lawsuit in which she denies knowing if Epstein had a scheme to recruit underage girls for sex.” Basically Maxwell denied that the sun rises in the east. After all, it may rise a little north or south of east and it depends on where you are when you look.
Emails and depositions by others
Some of the other nuggets about to see the light of day are “emails and depositions by others, including Giuffre and anonymous women who also claim to have been abused by Epstein.” The judge did not unseal a whole bunch of medical records, which is understandable. Multiple anonymous “Jane Does” who “accused Epstein of abuse but have not publicly spoken out” will still be redacted out.
Judge Preska isn’t worried that her decision to unseal the records might upset Ghislaine. She believes that the “public’s right to have access to the information carried heavier weight than the ‘annoyance or embarrassment’ to Maxwell. “In the context of this case, especially its allegations of sex trafficking of young girls, the court finds any minor embarrassment or annoyance resulting from Ms. Maxwell’s mostly non-testimony is far outweighed by the presumption of public access.” Her “mostly non-testimony” is about to become a big deal when she’s confronted with evidence countering her denials. Her new case accuses her of criminal perjury. CNN notes, the charges against her “include two counts of perjury for comments she made during a legal deposition in April and July 2016 as part of the defamation case.”
Jeffrey Epstein’s “one-time girlfriend and alleged accomplice,” possibly even his handler, “was charged by federal prosecutors in early July for allegedly helping recruit, groom and ultimately sexually abuse minors as young as 14 as part of a years-long criminal enterprise with Epstein.” She denies it all in the records the judge just agreed to unseal. Parts of the deposition already came out. Last August. Coincidentally, it was a day before Epstein didn’t hang himself in his cell. “Maxwell denied having given anyone a massage.” Especially not “Minor Victim-2.” She also claimed she “wasn’t aware that (Epstein) was having sexual activities with anyone when I was with him other than myself.” When asked about the “scheme to recruit underage girls for sexual massages,” she calmly answered, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton are hoping she has her video collection in a secure location. If anything happens to her in jail it could end up on Wikileaks.
