MIAMI _ A New York federal appeals court has ordered the unsealing of a cache of judicial documents that are expected to show evidence relating to whether New York financier Jeffrey Epstein and his partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, were recruiting underage girls and young women as part of an international sex trafficking operation.
The decision Wednesday comes two days after the Miami Herald submitted a letter urging the court to issue a ruling in the wake of a Justice Department decision. Last week, federal prosecutors announced that they would not throw out Epstein's controversial 2008 nonprosecution agreement.
Using others as recruiters, Epstein lured underage girls to his waterfront estate under the guise of giving him massages. He sexually abused them, the girls told authorities, then paid them to recruit other girls. Epstein, now 66, was never federally prosecuted, having received immunity in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser charges in state court in 2008.
Maxwell, 57, the daughter of the late publishing magnate Robert Maxwell, has never been charged with a crime and has denied that she was involved. She nevertheless fought to keep the records in the New York civil case sealed. The case involved a defamation allegation by one of Epstein's accusers against Maxwell. In addition to the Miami Herald, assorted other news organizations, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, filed a brief asking the court to release the documents. Social media blogger Michael Cernovich and Epstein's attorney, Alan Dershowitz, also sought unsealing of the records.
The New York case, filed in 2015, was brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who claims that she was sex trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell beginning when she was 16. Giuffre sued Maxwell for defamation after Maxwell publicly denounced her as a liar.
The case was settled in Giuffre's favor in 2017, several sources have told the Herald. Nearly 200 documents filed in connection with the case, however, remained under seal.
Giuffre's attorney, David Boies, said the appeals court reaffirmed basic legal principles involving an open judiciary.
"The most important point is the court is saying that facts that are brought out in court proceedings that go to improper and, in some cases, unlawful conduct should not be concealed from the public," Boies said.
"The court is saying the public has a right to know what the evidence is in cases involving the public interest. Cases of sexual abuse and sex trafficking are cases in which the public has an obvious and compelling interest."
In issuing its decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruled that a lower district court erred when it issued a blanket sealing of the case, which essentially allowed all the parties to file everything under wraps.
"The District Court failed to review the documents individually and produce 'specific, on-the-record findings that sealing is necessary to preserve higher values.' Instead, the District Court made generalized statements about the record as a whole. This ... was legal error," the appeals court wrote.
The court said a portion of the case involving summary judgment materials should be unsealed forthwith, except for minor redactions. The balance of the case history _ involving hundreds of additional pages _ will be reviewed by the District Court.
The ruling could still be appealed.
The court's determination comes as the victims continue to wage another legal battle in federal court. On Monday, in a 35-page filing, federal prosecutors in Georgia declared that they would not set aside Epstein's federal nonprosecution agreement, dealing a blow to victims who wanted it nullified.
The Herald, in its letter to the appeals court said the Georgia filing means the Justice Department has no intention of allowing Epstein's victims and the public to examine the facts of Epstein's case and reach their own conclusion. Herald attorney Sanford Bohrer said the Georgia filing shows that it is even more important that the appeals court act to unseal the New York case.
In February, a federal judge in Florida, Kenneth A. Marra, ruled that the government violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act when it failed to inform Epstein's victims that prosecutors had disposed of the case. He ordered prosecutors and lawyers for the victims to come up with a possible remedy in the case. The victims' lawyers are expected to file their response next week. Epstein, who is an intervenor in the case, is also expected to file arguments.
In November, the Herald published an investigation that detailed how federal prosecutors, led by then-Miami U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta, worked together with Epstein's high-powered legal team to give him and an undisclosed number of other people federal immunity for crimes committed against underage girls.
"We continue to believe that justice was not well served by the secrecy cloaking nearly every aspect of Mr. Epstein's alleged sex crimes," said Casey Frank, the Herald's senior editor for investigations. "We are all better off when allegations as serious as those against Mr. Epstein are held up to the light rather than buried."
Giuffre has claimed that Epstein and Maxwell forced her to have sex with a number of powerful, politically connected men, among them Prince Andrew and Dershowitz. Both have vehemently denied the allegations. Dershowitz says that there are documents in the Maxwell file that will prove that Giuffre has wrongly accused him.
Acosta, who is now President Donald Trump's labor secretary, has said the deal was a fair one because it ensured that Epstein, who agreed to plead guilty to state charges, would serve some time in a county jail and require that he register as a sex offender. Epstein served 13 months in the Palm Beach County stockade, receiving liberal work release privileges despite rules that barred work release for sex offenders.
The appeal court's ruling made reference to releasing up to 200 pages of documents. One judge urged journalists to use caution in weighing the records, noting that an allegation made in a civil court case should not, by definition, be considered factual.
Boies called the Georgia prosecutor's filing last week a disappointment, but believes that justice ultimately will be served.
"I'm an optimist _ I have to believe the Justice Department at the higher levels is still going to do the right thing," he said.
