Ghislaine Maxwell loses bid to block potentially damaging deposition against her
A last-minute attempt by Ghislaine Maxwell to stop the publication of potentially damaging documents has been blocked.
US District Court judge Loretta Preska said on Wednesday that depositions against Ms Maxwell and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should be made public.
Maxwell argued that the charges brought against her – which allege she recruited women for Epstein to abuse – were “compelling” reasons to stop the deposition's publication.
Those documents, according to the socialites’ legal team, were said to include ”intrusive” questions about Ms Maxwell’s sex life and could prove embarrassing.
The depositions came from a now-closed civil defamation lawsuit against Ms Maxwell by one of Epstein’s accusers, Virginia Giuffre.
Judge Preska’s order could see dozens of other documents, including flight logs from Epstein’s private jets and police reports from Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a home, made public.
Ms Maxwell said she intended to appeal the Manhattan court’s decision, which she must formally appeal before Thursday.
The 58-year-old British socialite pleaded not guilty on 14 July to helping Epstein recruit and eventually abuse three girls in the 1990s, and committing perjury by denying her involvement under oath.
In opposing the unsealing, her lawyers had accused Ms Giuffre and federal prosecutors of violating a protective order in the civil case designed to keep Maxwell’s deposition confidential.
They accused Ms Giuffre of leaking the deposition, and “in conjunction with the government” setting a “perjury trap” for their client.
But judge Preska said a criminal probe into Epstein’s associates already “loomed large” when Maxwell opposed unsealing the deposition in June, and her arrest did not overcome the presumption the public deserved access.
“This is plowed ground,” wrote the judge.
Ms Giuffre has said Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” with Maxwell’s assistance.
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