A New York judge on Monday ordered to reveal in early January 180 names of people – victims, relatives, alleged accomplices – linked to the network of American financier Jeffrey Epstein accused of sex crimes, but who committed suicide in prison in 2019 before be judged.
This order from Manhattan federal court magistrate Loretta Preska, dated December 18 and consulted Tuesday by AFP, is part of defamation proceedings between Mr. Epstein’s ex-mistress and accomplice. , Ghislaine Maxwell, sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in prison, and an American plaintiff against the couple, Virginia Giuffre.
The judge listed in a 50-page document the cases of some 180 people — under numbers and the pseudonym “Doe” — ordering that their identities be “completely” made public “14 days” at the latest after the date of this judicial document, either January 1 or 2, 2024.
According to the British media Daily News, which revealed the information on Tuesday, Virginia Giuffre’s defamation complaint against Ghislaine Maxwell dates back to 2016 and was settled the following year.
But the Miami Herald newspaper then took civil action to gain access to the file and investigate the Epstein network.
To justify the disclosure of names – including personalities already cited in the press – American justice relies on the fact that certain people are easily identifiable in interviews published in recent years.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming professional collaborators and accomplices in their sex crimes for nearly 30 years.
The 61-year-old former British, French and American socialite was convicted in December 2021 in New York of sex trafficking of minors on behalf of Mr. Epstein and sentenced in June 2022 to 20 years of imprisonment.
The financier, with powerful economic and political networks in the United States and abroad, was himself accused of sexually assaulting and raping young girls, but his suicide by hanging in prison in New York in August 2019 extinguished public action against him.
In a separate aspect of this international issue, British Prince Andrew, friend of the Maxwell-Epstein pair, sealed an amicable agreement in February 2022 – for $13 million according to the Daily Telegraph – with Virginia Giuffre, 40 years old. , who accused him of sexually assaulting her in 2001 when she was 17.
The 63-year-old prince, who has fallen from grace, disputes these accusations.
