A federal judge ruled on Thursday that dozens of documents belonging to Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and her personal affairs must be made public in the next two weeks.
The documents contain information pertaining to Ms Maxwell’s finances and her relationship with the Clintons, according to a Daily Mail report.
Among the set of documents US District Judge Loretta Preska asked to be released to the public in the next two weeks are ones that reveal Ms Maxwell’s efforts to quash requests from Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who sued Ms Maxwell for defamation, to obtain her financial records.
Ms Giuffre has alleged that she was sexually trafficked by Epstein and Ms Maxwell for years.
The Daily Mail reported that Ms Giuffre’s lawyers demanded a “vast array of documents” from Ms Maxwell. These include “funding received from the Clinton Global Initiative and the Clinton Foundation.”
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Ms Preska said the unsealing of the documents would not affect Ms Maxwell’s right to a fair trial. The judge said she was not “persuaded” by Ms Maxwell’s argument that “continued unsealing of these materials implicates her right to a fair trial in her pending criminal case.”
Ms Maxwell’s lawyers have argued that releasing personal documents would impact her trial, set for November this year.
As per the court filings, the judge also ruled that documents relating to a request from Ms Giuffre for email accounts should be made public as well. Ms Maxwell allegedly kept the accounts secret from the court, according to the Daily Mail report.
Ms Giuffre’s lawyers have sought Ms Maxwell’s tax returns, balance sheets and other financial statements for companies she controlled, among other materials.
Ms Giuffre claimed that Ms Maxwell recruited her when she was just 16 years old and took her to Epstein, who, she alleged, repeatedly raped and abused her.
Meanwhile, Ms Maxwell’s appellate counsel, David Oscar Markus, wrote in a Daily News op-ed published Wednesday that “she should not have to fight her case at trial and her case should be thrown out, just like Cosby’s has been because prosecutors promised Epstein when he pleaded guilty that they would not prosecute her.”
He said that the case against her should be thrown out on the same legal grounds as those used to free Bill Cosby, who was convicted of rape in 2018.
