New York judge orders unsealing of Ghislaine Maxwell-related grand jury subpoenas

The depositions ordered unsealed on Tuesday pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act formed the basis for two since-dismissed perjury counts of a superseding indictment brought against Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime sex trafficking partner, Ghislaine Maxwell.MANHATTAN (CN) — Against the objections of convicted British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a New York federal judge granted the Trump Justice Department’s request Tuesday to unseal grand jury materials turned over by Boies Schiller Flexner LLP during the federal investigation that led to pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 arrest on sex trafficking charges.“As noted above, Maxwell has lodged a veritable kitchen sink of objections to the government’s request to publish the sealed materials in compliance with the Act,” U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska wrote in her opinion, granting the unsealing of previously-subpoenaed material from a privately settled civil defamation case against Epstein’s former girlfriend, pursuant to the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump late last year.“The court finds that all of Maxwell’s objections are meritless and that, in light of the Act, any remaining materials in the Government’s possession should become part of the public record, subject to any victim-protecting redactions authorized by the Act,” Preska wrote.Preska, a Federalist Society member appointed by George H.W. Bush, characterized Maxwell’s opposition to the unsealing as “hurl[ing] a smorgasbord of procedural, statutory, and constitutional arguments at the court in the hope that one might stick.”Representatives for Maxwell did not immediately respond to request for comment Tuesday evening.Three years before Epstein’s arrest and jailhouse death by hanging, Maxwell was deposed in April and July of 2016 in connection with the the civil defamation suit filed the year prior by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who accused Maxwell of grooming her to become Epstein’s “sex slave.”Federal prosecutors later accused Maxwell in her criminal indictment of lying under oath during that 2016 civil deposition because she denied awareness of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse and recruitment schemes.The perjury counts were subsequently severed from her sex trafficking trial and the Department of Justice later agreed to drop the counts as long as Maxwell’s 2021 conviction was not overturned.A year after Maxwell reached a 2017 settlement to Giuffre’s defamation claims, the Miami Herald published a scathing investigative report, “Perversion of Justice,” that ultimately led to the rearrest of Epstein in July 2019 on federal charges.One day after the Second Circuit unsealed thousands of pages of incriminating evidence from Giuffre’s civil litigation, Epstein was found hanging in his Manhattan federal jail cell. Maxwell was arrested a year later and convicted in late December 2021.Giuffre, died by suicide in April 2025 at the age of 41, also sued Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor formerly known as Prince Andrew, Duke of York, August 2021, claiming he abused her on multiple occasions in 2001 when she was a 17-year-old victim of the sex trafficking ring Epstein ran for decades with the help of Maxwell.Giuffre claimed in the civil suit Prince Andrew’s sexual abuse occurred at Epstein’s mansion in Manhattan’s posh Upper East Side and on Epstein’s Little Saint James private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as at Maxwell’s home in London.The former prince, who since lost his royal title and stepped away from public life, paid millions to settle Giuffre’s claims in an out-of-court settlement in 2022.While he didn’t admit wrongdoing, the ex-royal acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.Last November, Congress voted nearly unanimously to pass legislation aimed at shining a spotlight on the federal government’s investigation into Epstein by ordering the U.S. attorney general to release all records the Justice Department possesses relating to late financier and convicted sex trafficker.After signing House Resolution 4405, also known as the “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” the following day, Trump said his Justice Department has already turned over 50,000 pages of documents relating to Epstein to Congress.“This latest hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer and current United States attorney general, interviewed Maxwell in a closed-door meeting in July 2025. After the interview, Maxwell was moved from a Florida prison to a low-security facility in Texas, which typically does not house sex traffickers.Categories / Courts, Criminal, LawSubscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads