Judge rules to unseal documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's affairs
Judge Loretta Preska ruled Thursday that dozens of documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs should be unsealed in two weeks.
EXCLUSIVE: Judge rules to unseal dozens of documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs, including those that reveal her and Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with the Clintons
- Judge Loretta Preska ruled Thursday that dozens of documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs should be unsealed in the next two weeks
- The judge said that unsealing the documents would not impact Maxwell's right to a fair trial in November as her lawyers have claimed
- Among the documents will be Maxwell's efforts to quash requests from Virginia Roberts Giuffre to obtain her financial records
- Giuffre's lawyers demanded documents from Maxwell, including 'funding received from the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation'
- Clinton flew on Epstein's plane dozens of times and photographs show the former president with the financier and Maxwell
PUBLISHED: 16:56 EDT, 1 July 2021 | UPDATED: 20:14 EDT, 1 July 2021
A judge has ruled that dozens more documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs should be made public, including some that could reveal more about her finances and her relationship to the Clintons.
Judge Loretta Preska said that unsealing the documents would not impact Maxwell's right to a fair trial in November as her lawyers have claimed.
Among the documents which will be made public in two weeks' time will be Maxwell's efforts to quash requests from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who sued Maxwell for defamation, to obtain her financial records.
Giuffre's lawyers demanded a vast array of documents from Maxwell including 'funding received from the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation,' according to court filings.
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The judge also ruled that documents relating to a request from Giuffre for email accounts that Maxwell allegedly kept secret from the court should also be made public.
They could give an insight into powerful men who Maxwell knew, such and Prince Andrew of the British royal family.
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The documents are part of a tranche of material gradually being released by Judge Preska from the defamation case Giuffre filed against Maxwell in 2016 for calling her a liar.
Giuffre claims Maxwell recruited her when she was 16 and took her to Jeffrey Epstein to be repeatedly raped and abused, including by Prince Andrew, which he denies.
The defamation case was settled in 2017 but after requests from the media organization the documents are gradually being unsealed.
During a hearing at New York's federal court, Judge Preska said she was not persuaded by Maxwell's argument that 'continued unsealing of these materials implicates her right to a fair trial in her pending criminal case', which is due to start in November.
Among the documents made public will be a motion for a protective order filed by Maxwell's lawyers to limit the amount of information about her finances they had to hand over.
Giuffre's lawyers sought such information so they would be better informed if the case went to a settlement, which it did.
Giuffre's lawyers sought Maxwell's tax returns, balance sheets for companies Maxwell controlled and financial statements for companies she controlled among other materials.
One section reads: 'From January 2012 to the present, produce all documents concerning any source of funding for the TarraMar Project (Maxwell's nonprofit) or any other not-for-profit entities with which you are associated, including but not limited to, funding received from the Clinton Global Initiative, the Clinton Foundation (a/k/a William J. Clinton Foundation, a/k/a/ the Bill, Hilary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation),and the Clinton Foundation Climate Change Initiative'.
While it is unclear if the Clintons will come up in the documents which will be made public, there is considerable back and forth and dozens of documents on this subject that will be unsealed.
Bill Clinton's relationship with Epstein and Maxwell came under intense scrutiny when the financier was arrested in July 2019.
Clinton flew on Epstein's plane dozens of times and photographs have shown him receiving a neck massage from Chauntae Davies, one of Epstein's victims who worked as a flight attendant on his private jet, known as the 'Lolita Express'.
The book 'A Convenient Death: The Mysterious Demise of Jeffrey Epstein', by journalists Alana Goodman and Daniel Halper even claimed that Clinton and Maxwell had a secret affair.
Other documents that will be unsealed relate to a request for information from Maxwell regarding what Giuffre's lawyers called an 'undisclosed email account' that she kept secret from the court in breach of an order to hand it over.
In a publicly available filing, they state: 'Ms Giuffre is aware of two email addresses that appear to be the email addresses defendant used while Ms Giuffre was with defendant and Epstein, namely, from 2000 - 2002.
'Defendant has denied that she used those accounts to communicate, but she has not disclosed the account she did use to communicate during that time, nor produce documents from it'.
Over four pages of redacted text, which will be made public in two weeks, Giuffre's lawyers argue why it should be made public.
Emails that have already been made public in the case showed Maxwell talking to Epstein about personal matters.
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In one from January 2015, when Giuffre made her allegations in a court in Florida and sparked a media firestorm, Epstein told Maxwell to keep her head up and stop acting like a 'convict'.
The pedophile told Maxwell: 'You have done nothing wrong and I would urge you to start acting like it'.
Other emails show that Prince Andrew emailed Maxwell 5.50am on January 3 2015 about Giuffre.
He said: 'Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts'.
Maxwell replied: 'Have some info. Call me when you have a moment'.
Maxwell is due to go on trial for sex trafficking conspiracy and perjury among other charges.
The 59-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all the allegations.
