A trove of court documents
unsealed Thursday night appear to show that the
late, accused sex trafficker
Jeffrey Epstein was in contact with his
now-charged confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2015.
In one email between Epstein
and Maxwell in 2015, Epstein appears to be composing a
draft statement for Maxwell to release publicly. The
date in January 2015 is a few weeks after one of
Epstein’s alleged victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre,
first shared her story with a British newspaper.
In another typo-filled email a
few days later, dated Jan. 25, 2015, "jeffrey E."
writes: "You have done nothing wrong and i woudl urge
you to start acting like it. go outside, head high, not
as an esacping convict. go to parties. deal with it."
The emails refer to "Gmax"
either in the recipient section or the email address.
That's the name the FBI and
federal prosecutors say Maxwell used when trying to set
up a cell phone this past year in another person's name.
Prosecutors have contended this was one of the ways
Maxwell sought to avoid detection and possible arrest.
The documents released
Thursday night have been under seal for years, but
Judge Loretta Preska last week ruled that a batch of
documents from the case, including a deposition of
Maxwell and correspondence between Maxwell and
Epstein, could be released.
The documents are from a
defamation case filed against Maxwell in 2015 by Giuffre,
who has alleged that Epstein sexually abused her and
that Maxwell and Epstein directed her to have sex with
other men between 2000 and 2002. The case, which Giuffre
brought after Maxwell accused her of lying when she said
Maxwell and Epstein had exploited and abused her, was
settled privately.
The unsealed documents
released Thursday also contain allegations that Jane Doe
3 — whose allegations match those of Giuffre — was
"forced" to have sexual relations with Prince Andrew on
Epstein’s private island in what was described as "an
orgy" with numerous other under-aged girls. It does not
specify the year. The woman was allegedly instructed by
Epstein to "give the Prince whatever he demanded" and
"report back to him on the details of the sexual abuse."
Similar allegations against
Andrew were ordered by a federal judge to be struck from
court records in 2015 after being lodged as part of a
lawsuit involving Epstein — but the judge did not rule
on the veracity of the claims.
NBC News has reached out to
Andrew's representatives for further comment.
Some of Andrew's supporters
have long maintained that the royal had done nothing
wrong, and pointed out that just because allegations are
included in court papers it does not mean they are true.
Requests for comment from
Maxwell's attorneys were not immediately returned
Thursday night.
Andrew has denied allegations
he had sex with Giuffre, who
says she was trafficked by Epstein when she was 17.
The prince said that he had no recollection of ever
meeting her or having any sort of sexual contact with
her at any point.
A representative for Giuffre
said Thursday night that she has no comment and is
unable to comment because it is an ongoing legal case.
Maxwell, 58, was arrested
at a remote New Hampshire mansion. She had not been
seen in public since Epstein, her longtime associate,
was
arrested on sex trafficking charges last year.
She was charged in a six-count
indictment that alleges she recruited and groomed
underage girls, some as young as 14, who were sexually
abused by Epstein in the mid-1990s. Prosecutors also
said that in some cases she “participated in the sexual
abuse of minor victims.”
The charges against Maxwell
cover a time period before Giuffre met Maxwell and
Epstein.
Maxwell pleaded not guilty at
her arraignment and has previously denied all
allegations of any improper sexual contact.
Epstein
died by suicide in jail last summer while awaiting
trial. Following his death, federal prosecutors vowed to
continue the investigation and prosecute his enablers.
Maxwell had petitioned a judge
for home confinement in a luxury Manhattan hotel,
pending trial, according to court filings, but that
request was denied.
Prosecutors have described
Maxwell as an extreme flight risk, saying she has access
to millions of dollars, extensive international contacts
and citizenship in France, which does not have an
extradition treaty with the United States.
The documents released
Thursday were just part of the group the judge ruled on.
Additional documents could be released as early as
Monday.
Maxwell has appealed the
release of documents that quote from or disclose
information from her own deposition or that of a "John
Doe 1" in the case to the Court of Appeals. If that
court does not rule by Monday, those documents will also
be unsealed and released then.
The disclosures Thursday night
followed a day of high stakes legal drama as Maxwell’s
attorneys tried multiple last-minute interventions to
prevent the release of documents that had remained under
seal for years.
Maxwell’s attorneys sought to
submit materials under seal that had been ordered to be
made public by a judge last week — and when that did not
work, requested an emergency conference with the judge,
which was also denied Thursday evening.
In Preska's order for the
release of the documents to go on as planned, the judge
wrote: "The Court is troubled — but not surprised — that
Ms. Maxwell has yet again sought to muddy the waters as
the clock ticks closer to midnight."
Thursday afternoon, Maxwell's
attorneys pleaded with a federal appeals court to keep
the documents sealed, saying in part that Maxwell said
things in her deposition — including "regarding her
consensual adult sexual activity" — only because she was
promised confidentiality.
They wrote that in light of
her federal prosecution, any revelations from the
unsealed documents "will forever let the cat out of the
bag.
