Senior U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska for the Southern District of New York ruled on December 18th that a massive trove of documents from the Jeffrey Epstein case will be unsealed in 14 days or January 2nd. Listed as “J. Doe” 003-187 on the documents, and seem to be friends, recruiters, and victims of Epstein and his associates.
Epstein victim Virginia Guiffre’s defamation case is the reason for this lawsuit. It targets the former partner and teen “scout” Ghislaine Maxwell. Already doing a 20-year bid as of June 2022 for her role in sexually abusing and exploiting teen girls for a decade, Maxwell’s trial was blocked out from the TV and live media in the courtroom. Now with this new order, many of these names could finally be made public.
However, Judge Preska has left a loophole in her ruling. “The Court stays its order for fourteen days to permit any impacted Doe the opportunity to appeal, after which counsel are asked to confer, prepare the documents for unsealing pursuant to this order, and post the documents on the docket.” When the announcement came, the total was closer to 200, but by December 20th, it already dropped down to 140 and is expected to drop more.
Known associates of Epstein are Bill Gates, billionaire LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former Obama Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, private equity billionaire Leon Black, leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky, and famed director Woody Allen per a Wall Street Journal report. When Bill Gates and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos found out about their relationships with Epstein, both men were quickly divorced, with their wives taking massive chunks of their fortunes with them.
Back in July 2019, the celeb and political worlds were turned upside down when Epstein was charged in a Manhattan federal court for allegedly trafficking minors for sex, as well as conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Soon, a laundry list of who’s who was leaked, but was quickly silenced as nothing more than rumors, but they never actually went away. In the indictment were dozens of accusations of Epstein sexually abusing underaged girls. With the offenses alleged to have taken place in NYC and Palm Springs, FL, it was a federal crime.
Previously convicted in 2008 in Florida for obtaining access to a child for sexual abuse (somehow called prostitution), Epstein had already spent a year in jail for going after minors. Registered as a sex offender, he spent most of his time on his private island in the US Virgin Islands. On his Little St. James Island property, he had victims flown in from across the globe courtesy of Maxwell.
Facing the music in 2019, many thought this would be the end of his child sex crimes and the justice his victims deserved. When he was found dead despite being on suicide watch, it was discovered that somehow the cameras weren’t working properly. Shockingly, nobody was ever held responsible for this failure. String up by his bed sheets, the cause of death was ruled a suicide, and prosecutors now honed on Maxwell exclusively.
Epstein left behind a sizable estate; his Little St. James Island property was sold off as part of his estate’s settlement with the US Virgin Islands, and now the new owner is reportedly looking to make the property into an all-inclusive resort. Given the popularity this property has had since Epstein’s death, a resort would certainly be popular, but also not fitting given its history.
Along with his estate paying out to his victims, both Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan have settled lawsuits that accused the financial institutions of enabling his global sex trafficking empire. With their connections to his financial portfolios and money moves, they directly influenced and guided his abuse and its funding.
Now that a judge is finally ready to do what’s necessary, we can put this all to rest.
