Manhattan Judge Rules To Unseal Epstein/Maxwell Docs

Here's more from ABC:

As Ghislaine Maxwell sits in a federal detention center in Brooklyn, New York, facing allegations that she conspired with the late Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse three minor girls, her attorney is vowing an emergency appeal of a federal judge's decision Thursday to make public a cache of sealed court documents from a civil lawsuit against Maxwell that was settled three years ago.

Citing "great concerns" about Maxwell's ability to get a fair trial if the records are released, Maxwell's lawyer, Laura Menninger, asked for a delay of two weeks to file an appeal of the ruling. The judge gave her one week.

"We are in a vastly different position," now that Maxwell has been criminally charged, Menninger said, "and certainly have great concerns about our client's ability to seek and receive an impartial and fair trial and jury, given the intense media scrutiny around anything that is unsealed," she said.

MORE: Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyers want a court order to muzzle prosecutors and lawyers for accusers
The court filings in the case -- a civil defamation lawsuit filed by Virginia Roberts Giuffre against Maxwell in 2015 -- are said to contain the names of hundreds of people, some famous and some not, who socialized, traveled or worked with Epstein over the span of more than a decade. The late financier has previously been linked to a coterie of high-profile business leaders, scientists, royalty and politicians, including former President Bill Clinton and current President Donald Trump.

Senior U.S. District Court Judge Loretta Preska ruled Thursday during a remote court hearing that the public is legally entitled to access dozens of previously sealed records of the case, including transcripts and excerpts from depositions of Maxwell and Giuffre. Maxwell's lawyers had previously argued to keep those records under seal.

"This series of pleadings concerns [Giuffre's] attempt to compel Ms. Maxwell to answer intrusive questions about her sex life," Maxwell's attorney, Jeffrey Pagliuca, wrote last month. "The subject matter of these [documents] is extremely personal, confidential, and subject to considerable abuse by the media."

In her ruling Thursday, Preska said that Maxwell's team had failed to raise objections sufficient to overcome the presumption of public access to judicial documents.

"In the context of this case, especially its allegations of sex trafficking of young girls," Preska said, "the Court finds that any minor embarrassment or annoyance resulting from disclosure of Ms. Maxwell's mostly non-testimony about behavior that has been widely reported in the press is far outweighed by the presumption of public access."

"The sealed testimony or summaries may inappropriately influence potential witnesses or alleged victims," Pagliuca wrote last month.

But Preska rejected those arguments, too.

"Ms. Maxwell has not explained how this sealed material, if released, could, as she posits, 'inappropriately influence potential witnesses or victims,'" Preska said. "Again, the Court finds that this interest is entitled to little weight under the facts of this case."

Among the items Preska ordered unsealed are transcripts and excerpts from at least one of Maxwell's multi-hour depositions in the case, which Maxwell's attorneys argued were given under an expectation of confidentiality that had been agreed to by both sides in the dispute, according to Maxwell's court filing objecting to the records release. Limited excerpts of those depositions were released last year."

Hopefully this is just the beginning of destroying what is likely an international child slavery cabal. 

Wherever the chips may fall, we must find out who associated with Epstein, who partied on his island, and who enjoyed the fruits of his evil empire. 

These documents cannot be unsealed soon enough.