Ghislaine Maxwell: Judge rules ‘sensational and impure’ evidence to be blocked from trial
Ghislaine Maxwell appears via video link during her arraignment hearing where she was denied bail for her role aiding Jeffrey Epstein to recruit and eventually abuse of minor girls
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A New York judge has granted a request by Ghislaine Maxwell’s legal team to redact segments from the case filed against her, claiming they would “serve to cater a ‘craving for that which is sensational and impure.’”
US District Judge Alison J Nathan issued the ruling last week on redactions from portions of a transcript the government filed under seal that Ms Maxwell’s legal team had requested on the grounds of privacy concerns.
The judge also granted redactions that prosecutors made when filing the transcript on the basis of protection of the “integrity of an ongoing criminal investigation and to protect third parties’ personal privacy interests.”
“As a general matter, these interests are legitimate and provide a basis for overcoming the presumption of access,” the judge ruled.
Judge Nathan denied Ms Maxwell’s objections to some of these redactions. The British socialite’s lawyers argued that “some of the information contained in the redactions has been made public by other means.”
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The judge wrote: “Though the Defendant contends that some of the information contained in the redactions is public, she furnishes no evidence to that effect”, adding that the privacy interests at stake “justify the limited and narrowly tailored redactions.”
Ms Maxwell, a former confidante of disgraced financier and convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein, was charged by the FBI last year with multiple counts of sex exploitation and abuse of minor girls.
Ms Maxwell has denied all the charges against her. She is awaiting trial in a New York prison and her trial date has been provisionally scheduled for 12 July, 2021.
The 59-year-old, who is the daughter of the late media baron Robert Maxwell, has been denied bail ahead of her trial after a judge ruled that she represented a flight risk.
Epstein died by suicide while in Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York City in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking.
