A U.S. district judge has ordered the release of hundreds of sealed court documents that could expose the names of Jeffrey Epstein's associates who were involved in his sex trafficking network.
The documents are part of a 2015 civil lawsuit filed by Virginia Giuffre, who accused Epstein's former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, of recruiting and abusing her when she was a teenager. Giuffre also claimed that she was forced to have sex with several prominent men, including Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, and Glenn Dubin.
The documents include depositions, correspondence, and other evidence that could reveal the identities of more than 150 "John and Jane Does" who were mentioned in the case but whose names were redacted to protect their privacy.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled in December that there was no legal basis for keeping the documents secret, and ordered the unsealing to begin after January. She said that the public interest in the case outweighed the privacy concerns of the individuals involved.
The unsealing process is expected to take several weeks, as the court will review each document and notify the parties before making them public. The documents will be posted on a public website maintained by the court.
The release of the documents could have significant implications for the criminal case against Maxwell, who was arrested in July and charged with conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors. She has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial in a New York jail.
Epstein, a wealthy financier who had connections to many powerful people, was arrested in 2019 and charged with sex trafficking of minors. He died in a New York jail in August 2019, in what was ruled a suicide by hanging.
