\u201cThe court finds that all of Maxwell\u2019s objections are meritless and that, in light of the Act, any remaining materials in the Government\u2019s possession should become part of the public record, subject to any victim-protecting redactions authorized by the Act,\u201d Preska wrote.<\/p>\n
Preska, a Federalist Society member appointed by George H.W. Bush, characterized Maxwell\u2019s opposition to the unsealing as \u201churl[ing] a smorgasbord of procedural, statutory, and constitutional arguments at the court in the hope that one might stick.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representatives for Maxwell did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Three years before Epstein\u2019s arrest and jailhouse death by hanging, Maxwell was deposed in April and July of 2016 in connection with the the civil defamation suit filed the year prior by\u00a0Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accused Maxwell of grooming her to become Epstein\u2019s \u201csex slave.\u201d<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors later accused Maxwell in her criminal indictment of lying under oath during that 2016 civil deposition because she denied awareness of Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s abuse and recruitment schemes.<\/p>\n
The perjury counts were subsequently severed<\/a> from her sex trafficking trial and the Department of Justice later agreed to drop the counts<\/a> as long as Maxwell\u2019s 2021 conviction was not overturned.<\/p>\n A year after Maxwell reached a\u00a02017 settlement<\/a>\u00a0to Giuffre\u2019s defamation claims, the Miami Herald published a\u00a0scathing investigative report<\/a>, \u201cPerversion of Justice,\u201d\u00a0that ultimately led to the rearrest of Epstein in July 2019 on federal charges.<\/p>\n One\u00a0day after the Second Circuit\u00a0unsealed thousands of pages of incriminating evidence<\/a>\u00a0from Giuffre\u2019s civil litigation, Epstein was found hanging in his Manhattan federal jail cell.\u00a0Maxwell was arrested a year later\u00a0and convicted<\/a>\u00a0in late December 2021.<\/p>\n Giuffre, died by suicide in April 2025 at the age of 41, also\u00a0sued Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor formerly known as Prince Andrew, Duke of York, August 2021, claiming he abused her on multiple occasions in 2001<\/a> when she was a 17-year-old victim of the sex trafficking ring\u00a0Epstein ran for decades with the help of Maxwell.<\/p>\n Giuffre claimed in the civil suit Prince Andrew\u2019s sexual abuse occurred at Epstein\u2019s mansion in Manhattan\u2019s posh Upper East Side and on Epstein\u2019s Little Saint James private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as at Maxwell\u2019s home in London.<\/p>\n The former prince, who since lost his royal title and stepped away from public life, paid millions to settle Giuffre\u2019s claims in an out-of-court settlement in 2022.<\/p>\n While he didn\u2019t admit wrongdoing, the ex-royal acknowledged Giuffre\u2019s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.<\/p>\n Last November, Congress voted nearly unanimously<\/a> to pass legislation aimed at shining a spotlight on the federal government\u2019s investigation into Epstein by ordering the U.S. attorney general to release all records the Justice Department possesses relating to late financier and convicted sex trafficker.<\/p>\n After signing House Resolution 4405, also known as the \u201cEpstein Files Transparency Act,\u201d the following day, Trump said his Justice Department has already turned over 50,000 pages of documents relating to Epstein to Congress.<\/p>\n \u201cThis latest hoax will backfire on the\u00a0Democrats just as all of the rest have,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social.<\/p>\n Todd Blanche, Trump\u2019s former personal lawyer and current United States attorney general, interviewed Maxwell in a closed-door meeting in July 2025. After the interview, Maxwell was moved from a Florida prison to a low-security facility in Texas, which typically does not house sex traffickers.<\/p>\n Our weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing
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