Yahoo reported that Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of late financier Jeffrey Epstein, suffered dual setbacks in a U.S. court on Thursday, as a judge authorized the release of new materials related to her, while another judge refused to block prosecutors and lawyers from publicly discussing her criminal case.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan directed the release of more than 80 documents from a 2015 civil lawsuit against Maxwell, the British socialite now facing criminal charges that she lured girls for Epstein to sexually abuse.
The materials ordered unsealed include flight logs from Epstein’s private jets, testimony from depositions in 2016 in which Maxwell’s lawyers said she was asked “intrusive questions” about her sex life, and police reports from Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a home.
Maxwell is being held in a Brooklyn jail after pleading not guilty last week to charges she helped Epstein recruit and eventually abuse girls from 1994 to 1997, and committed perjury by denying knowledge of his abuse in depositions.
Preska said the presumption the public had a right to access the documents outweighed Maxwell’s arguments to keep them under wraps, including that they concerned “extremely personal” matters whose release could prove embarrassing or annoying.
The judge gave Maxwell one week to file an emergency appeal, but said both sides should proceed as though the documents will be made public “within a week.”
Last July the Washington Examiner reported that former President Bill Clinton claimed that he took four trips, accompanied by the Secret Service, on billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s “Lolita Express” private airplane, but flight manifests reveal at least six separate journeys, two of which were without Secret Service agents.
The two trips not acknowledged by Clinton were from Miami, Florida, to Westchester, New York, in early February 2002, which appears to be the first time that Clinton joined Epstein, and a trip in Asia.
One May 2002 Asian trip, without Secret Service agents, included stops in Japan, Hong Kong, China, Thailand, and Brunei. The other, in November 2003, with Secret Service agents, included stops in Norway, Siberia, Hong Kong, and China.
Another divergence from Clinton’s account is that the manifests show no Secret Service agents were present for one of the former president’s Africa trips with Epstein.
The discrepancies between Clinton’s claims and the flight manifests draw the former president deeper into the Epstein scandal. Epstein has also been associated with Prince Andrew and President Trump, a fellow resident of Palm Beach, Florida. Trump reportedly flew with Epstein and in 2002 described him as a “terrific guy,” adding: “He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”
On Monday, Clinton’s press secretary Angel Ureña said in a statement: “In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took a total of four trips on Jeffrey Epstein’s airplane: One to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation.” Supporters of the Foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip.”
But a review of flight manifest records contradicts these claims. It shows Clinton took 27 flights on Epstein’s private jet during at least six different trips.
Court documents outlining the trips and the individual flights were filed as an exhibit in a lawsuit by Bradley Edwards, an attorney for some of Epstein’s accusers.