Oral Arguments to Begin on Unsealing Epstein’s Court Documents

Oral arguments about whether to unseal documents from a past court case involving accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein will begin March 6 at the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City. The case, Giuffre v. Maxwell, was a defamation lawsuit brought by one of Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre. The suit was settled in May 2017, but unsealing related court records could introduce volumes of new information regarding Epstein’s alleged activities, and those of his powerful alleged co-participants.

Epstein, a wealthy financier, has been accused of molesting dozens of underage girls at his Palm Beach, Florida, mansion and his 72-acre private island estate in the Caribbean. The Department of Justice is currently investigating a 2007 plea deal that allowed him to only serve 13 months in a private area of a Palm Beach County jail, and work unsupervised at his downtown West Palm Beach office 12 hours a day, six days a week, during that period. In 2015, Giuffre sued Epstein’s partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, after Maxwell publicly challenged her claims of abuse.

According to an August 2017 lower court ruling, Giuffre alleged that she was a “victim of sexual trafficking and abuse while she was a minor child,” and that Maxwell helped facilitate the abuse, which allegedly occurred over a decade at numerous locations “around the world,” and “with prominent and politically powerful men.” The lawsuit asserted that Giuffre was subjected to “public ridicule, contempt, and disgrace” when Maxwell publicly denied her allegations. The two-year dispute involved what Judge Robert Sweet of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York called “a lengthy and tumultuous discovery process” with “extreme sensitivities and privacy interests.” As a result, he placed a protective order on discovery documents and other items spanning 18 hearings and 15 related decisions.

Famed Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, who co-represented Epstein during the controversial 2007 plea agreement, unsuccessfully attempted to have three case documents unsealed in August 2016. Prominent blogger, journalist, author, and filmmaker Mike Cernovich filed a motion to unseal case materials in Jan. 2017, but was denied. Giuffre and Maxwell settled four months later, and on April 9, 2018, The Miami Herald filed a motion to unseal all case documents on First Amendment grounds. The Herald’s court filing was then joined by Dershowitz, who requested to be advised of any unsealed records, so he could seek additional documents to be unsealed if needed. Giuffre and another women, Sarah Ransomme, have accused Dershowitz of abusing them in association with Epstein and Maxwell, which he vehemently denies. The Herald lost its initial attempt to unseal the documents, but has since garnered the support of 32 media organizations for its appeal on March 6, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Fox News, and the Associated Press.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/oral-arguments-to-begin-on-unsealing-epsteins-court-documents_2824549.html

Amici Brief,

https://www.rcfp.org/wp-content/uploads/imported/2018-12-17-Giuffre-v-Maxwell.pdf

Florida

Alan Dershowitz suggests curbing press access to hearing on Jeffrey Epstein sex abuse

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article226922729.html

Alan Dershowitz

https://twitter.com/AlanDersh/status

/1101900952322408449

julie k. brown

https://twitter.com/jkbjournalist/status/1101655052740161537

https://twitter.com/jkbjournalist/status/1102177039409385472