The world may seen be hit with another 2020 bombshell.
This time, it involves the infamous Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.
His alleged accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, attempted to shield 2016 transcripts detailing her sex life but has now lost in court.
The testimony, which was obtained after a civil lawsuit filed by an alleged Epstein victim, may reveal important details about the pair's relationship.
From The Daily Beast:
Transcripts of interviews conducted with alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell that referenced her former boyfriend, the dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, and contain intimate details about her sex life, should be made public no later than 9 a.m. ET Thursday, a New York judge ordered Tuesday.
The controversial transcripts, long sought-after by some of Epstein’s victims and the media, are expected to shine an unprecedented light on Maxwell and Epstein’s life together and come from two days of depositions in 2016 for a since-settled libel case filed against Maxwell by Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Maxwell’s legal team has argued the deposition contains “intimate” information about her sex life and other personal matters. Federal prosecutors say they believe Maxwell may have perjured herself during the testimony.
The transcripts run to more than 400 pages.
Tuesday’s order by District Judge Loretta Preska marks what appears to be a final and resounding defeat to Maxwell’s persistent attempts to keep the deposition secret.
On Monday, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled that Preska properly decided that the public had a right to access documents from legal proceedings and that transcripts should be unsealed because arguments by Maxwell’s lawyers were meritless.
Her lawyers have argued that the unsealing of the deposition could interfere with Maxwell getting a fair trial next year; Preska has firmly come down on the side of those seeking its unsealing.
Preska on Tuesday gave Maxwell’s team an opportunity to make “minimal redactions” to block personally identifiable information that would reveal the names of non-parties or their families, but directed “the material previously ordered unsealed shall be posted on the docket no later than 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 22, 2020.”
NPR points out that in addition to Maxwell's testimony, that of an unnamed male will also be made available as part of the disclosure:
Other materials that have long been kept secret will also be made public. In addition to Maxwell's words, the deposition of a man identified only as "John Doe 1" will be released, along with "all materials quoting those transcripts or disclosing information from those transcripts," according to court documents.
The records will undergo "minimal redactions" to remove personally identifiable information, as well as the names of people who aren't parties in the lawsuit. Other details, such as the families of nonparties and "descriptions of nonparty conduct that would allow readers to discern the identity of a given nonparty," will also be excised.
"In order to hasten the unsealing process and to avoid any last-minute disputes, the Court advises the parties that the necessary redactions are intended to be as limited in scope as is workable," Preska wrote in her order.
The appeals court also denied Maxwell's request to consolidate the appeal over the defamation documents with other legal battles she is waging. And the court said that any other appeals in the complicated and long-running case should be made to the same appeals court, which is based in New York.
Epstein never faced a federal trial over the crimes of which he was accused. Roughly a month after his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019, he died after being found unresponsive in his jail cell in Manhattan. His death at age 66 was ruled a suicide.
Accusations against Epstein have long been obscured by legal maneuvers — such as a controversial nonprosecution agreement he reached in 2007 with federal prosecutors in Florida. That plea deal with then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta exposed Epstein to state charges but prevented him and any co-conspirators from being prosecuted for federal sex crimes in southern Florida."
God only knows what is coming our way.
But it is bound to be absolutely explosive!
It's 2020 after all!
Will there be another political bombshell buried in these transcripts?!
Clintons? Hollywood?
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