Dozens of Ghislaine Maxwell documents unsealed in sex-trafficking case
Dozens of documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell have been unsealed after she lost the fight for them to stay secret.
The 52 documents were unsealed overnight in the ongoing sex-trafficking proceeding and mostly concern a previously settled defamation lawsuit. The lawsuit came from one of the most outspoken accusers of Epstein and Ms Maxwell – Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Epstein was a convicted sex offender who died in a jail cell in August 2019. The medical examiner determined that the death was a suicide.
“Finally we are getting some transparency. There is hope. We must maintain vigilant in order for the truth to see the light of day,” Ms Giuffre tweeted after the announcement that Manhattan federal judge Loretta Preska had decided to release the documents.
Ms Giuffre has alleged that she was forced to have sex with powerful men, such as Prince Andrew, when she was 17 years old. She’s now in her 30s. Prince Andrew has denied any allegations of wrongdoing.
Other documents pertain to a protective order filed by Ms Maxwell’s lawyers to restrict the information they would be forced to hand over about her finances.
The documents unsealed include part of the deposition of Rinaldo Rizzo, who previously served as a private chef for hedgefund manager Glenn Dubin. Mr Rizzo claimed that Epstein and Ms Maxwell brought a confused 15-year-old Swedish girl to Mr Dubin’s home.
The chef added that the girl was left sitting on a barstool in the kitchen as he and his wife cooked that night’s meal.
“She proceeds to tell my wife and I that, and this is not – this is blurting out, not a conversation like I’m having a casual conversation,” a transcript quotes him as saying. “That quickly, ‘I was on an island, I was on the island and there was Ghislaine, there was Sarah,’ she said, ‘They asked me for sex, I said no.’”
He said the girl didn’t know how she had got from the island to Mr Dubin’s home.
“I said this is nuts, do you have a passport, do you have a phone?” Mr Rizzo said and added that the girl proceeded to tell him that her passport had been taken.
Mr Dubin and his wife Eva Andersson Dubin, who previously dated the disgraced financier, have said that they weren’t aware of Epstein’s criminal behaviour.
The 59-year-old Ms Maxwell is charged with lying under oath and recruiting young girls for Epstein to sexually abuse from the 1990s until 2004.
She has pleaded not guilty but could face up to 40 years in prison if she’s convicted.
The trial is scheduled to start in November after being delayed from its initial start date in July.
One of the documents unsealed shows a handwritten record of messages left for Epstein in the early 2000s, according to a Fox News review. Many of these messages were from Ms Maxwell. Several messages referred to massage appointments.
“Would be helpful to have [redacted] come to Palm Beach today to stay here and help train new staff with Ghislaine,” one undated message reads.
A message from 27 February 2005 from a caller whose name has been redacted says: “Please call her back. She wanted [to] make sure you know that she is going to meet Ghislaine and go with her to the Ranch.”
Another message that appears between entries dated between July and August 2005 states: “She doesn’t want to come to the movies, but call her if you want a massage before or after the movie.”
During Ms Maxwell’s deposition, she was often asked about massages, but her lawyers told her not to answer most of those questions.
A message from 4 September 2005 states: “Cancelled [redacted]. She would like to speak to you. I [believe] about college [redacted]. Should I schedule anyone else?”
One of the documents shows parts of Ms Maxwell 2016 deposition in the defamation case.
At one point, Ms Giuffre’s former lawyer David Boies asked Ms Maxwell if she was aware of how old the girls giving massages to Epstein at his Florida mansion were.
“The ones that I did recognise were roughly my age,” she said. “The ones I don’t know, I wouldn’t have a clue.”
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