Ghislaine Maxwell, disgraced British socialite and alleged madam of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has lost a bid to keep an excerpt from a 2016 deposition regarding sex toys.
New York Post reports:
US District Judge Loretta Preska already released large portions of the July 22 under-oath interview related to a now-settled suit from Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, but the British socialite’s lawyers had asked the judge to keep 20 lines of the document under wraps. But Preska said Monday that they couldn’t. […] Maxwell’s lawyers had argued that the excerpt should be kept sealed to keep “private the details of her own consensual, sexual activity.”
“There is no reason not to unseal this portion of testimony,” Preska said. “While the court acknowledges Ms. Maxwell’s interest in a fair criminal trial, Ms. Maxwell can argue all her points to the presiding judge in her criminal trial, as she has already.”
“It does not relate to private sexual activity of consenting adults, but only to massages,” the New York City judge added. “Any private interest she has in sealing this portion of testimony does not outweigh the presumption of public access that attaches to it.”
The ruling comes after a federal judge once against denied bail for Maxwell, citing her status as a serious flight risk.
Judge Alison Nathan said Maxwell poses a serious flight risk due to her wealth and holding multiple citizenships.
Nathan wrote: “The Court… finds that the Defendant’s proposed bail conditions would not reasonably assure her appearance at future proceedings. The Court concludes that none of the new information that the Defendant presented in support of her application has a material bearing on the Court’s determination that she poses a flight risk.”
Maxwell, 58, is in a federal lockup in Brooklyn awaiting a July trial on charges that she recruited three teenage girls in the 1990s for Epstein to sexually abuse.
She has pleaded not guilty. Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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