Ghislaine Maxwell’s request to delay the unsealing of potentially damaging court documents has been rejected by a New York judge. Attorneys for Maxwell, who is accused of sex trafficking teenage girls for late financier Jeffrey Epstein, argued that “critical new information” had surfaced that could affect Maxwell’s ability to obtain a fair trial, justifying the delay. However US District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan said she had no reasonable basis to order their requested three-week delay. The documents come from a long-settled civil defamation case against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who said Epstein kept her as a “sex slave” with Maxwell’s help. Maxwell’s criminal trial is scheduled for July 2021.
US prosecutors are also expected to respond to a separate request by Maxwell’s lawyers that she be moved into the general population at the Brooklyn jail where she is being held. The lawyers said the 58-year-old has been subjected to “uniquely onerous” conditions, including 24-hour surveillance and numerous body scans.
Epstein was found hanged in his prison cell last August from an apparent suicide, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
