In a bombshell ruling, a federal judge has ordered dozens of documents that expose the identities of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates to be unsealed.
This from slaynews.com.
In a ruling late Friday, Judge Loretta Preska of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that the public interest in the documents outweighs the right to privacy.
Preska ruled that the material concerning eight people should be unsealed, despite one subject claiming it:
“[C]ould wrongfully harm (his) privacy and reputation.”
Those listed in the documents are powerful elites who have been battling in the courts to keep their identities hidden.
Many believe those names in the files could be part of deceased child sex trafficker Epstein’s elusive “client list.”
Among those whose names are mentioned in the documents is a British woman, Ghislaine Maxwell’s former personal assistant, who was accused of taking part in the sexual abuse of minors.
Maxwell is currently in prison after being convicted of her role in Epstein’s trafficking ring.
However, despite her conviction, prosecutors have never revealed to whom Maxwell was convicted of trafficking underage girls
Judge Preska overrode objections from Tom Pritzker, the billionaire executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels, and ordered material related to him be made public.
Tom Pritzker is a member of the powerful Pritzker family and cousin of Illinois democrat communist Governor J.B. Pritzker.
The documents are part of a defamation case brought against Maxwell by accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre in 2016 that was later settled.
The trove of material has been released on a rolling basis after the first set was released in 2019, two days before Epstein was found dead in his jail cell, after numerous requests from media organizations.
According to The Daily Mail:
A total of 16 ‘Non-Party Does’ objected to the release of the files being made public and the first set of eight have already been dealt with by the federal court in New York.
The latest batch, related to the remaining eight, refers to the individuals as Does 12, 28, 97, 107, 144, 147, 171, and 183.
Judge Preska said that:
[M]uch of the ‘purportedly sensitive information’ had already been made public last year during Maxwell’s trial for trafficking underage girls to Epstein, which led to her being jailed for 20 years.
The Judge ran through dozens of documents and ordered them to be unsealed.
She said after reviewing one objection:
This document will be unsealed.
Judge Preska reviewed several objections but disagreed and ordered the material unsealed.
She declared that the public’s right to access outweighed any:
[G]eneralized concerns about privacy and the material was not particularly salacious.
In his submission to the court, billionaire Pritzker claimed it would:
[W]rongfully harm (his) privacy and reputation if material related to him was made public.
But Judge Preska said there was “no basis” for keeping the material under seal, adding that it was just a fleeting mention.
Judge Preska did, however, make some concessions to the objectors.
She said:
Certain details contained within certain documents that are not public…objecting Does have set forth a sufficient interest to preserve sealing.
Documents related to Doe 12 remained sealed as Judge Preska said they were a ‘classic outsider.’
Doe 12 is ‘peripheral to the events at issue’ and is ‘neither victim nor associated with Epstein or Maxwell.’
Documents relating to Doe 28 will remain sealed as they are a ‘victim of sexual assault who continues to experience trauma as a result of these events.’
But material related to Doe 147, who Judge Preska identified as Epstein victim Sarah Ransome, should be unsealed.
Judge Preska said that Ransome was a ‘victim of sexual trauma and abuse’ by Epstein and Maxwell but she testified publicly at Maxwell’s sentencing.
Ransome published a book about her experience and wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about it.
The judge did not set a timeline for when the material should be made public, but it will likely be weeks away.
Unlike with previous batches of documents, Maxwell did not oppose them and made no representation to the court.
Among the revelations in the documents already made public were two depositions given by Maxwell in 2016 as part of the defamation case.
Over seven hours Maxwell was questioned about everything from her sex life to her relationship with Britain’s Prince Andrew and Epstein.
At one point she denied keeping a “laundry basket of sex toys” at Epstein’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
Maxwell was asked about having three-way sexual massages with Epstein and his sexual “idiosyncrasies” such as nipple pinching.
When asked if she ever provided Virginia Roberts Giuffre with “schoolgirl outfits” for her to wear with a massage, Maxwell responded:
I have no idea what you are talking about.
Elsewhere in the deposition:
Maxwell called Giuffre an ‘awful fantasist’ and at one point she became so angry she banged her hand on the table.
Among the other material already unsealed was:
[Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s] draft of her memoir which detailed how she was flown around the world by Epstein and loaned out to his powerful friends.
She detailed:
[H]ow she was forced to have sex with Andrew in London when she was 17, at Epstein’s New York mansion and his private island in the Caribbean.
Earlier this year Andrew settled a civil lawsuit brought by Roberts for a reported $12 million.
Final thoughts: Warped and sordid but not anomalous. This behavior is pervasive. But interesting that we do not read about republicans performing in the above-noted manner. This seems to be always or at least most usually democrats communists.
Interesting too, communists investigate Conservatives unfoundedly for the behaviors in which they consort: lying, stealing, cheating, and sexual perversion.
A fair generalization may be: ‘Elect a Conservative for honesty and the absence of a sordid past; elect a democrat communist and you’ll likely receive all of the problems noted above.
