US: Ghislaine Maxwell no longer fighting to keep names of 'John Does' secret, says report

UK’s former socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted last month for trafficking young girls to be abused by US' disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, is no longer fighting to keep the names of eight ‘John Does’ secret. CNN cited a 12 January letter addressed to federal Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York, where it was mentioned that Maxwell will leave it to the court to decide whether the names connected to a 2015 defamation case brought by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, should be unsealed or not. 

Epstein victim, Giuffre who has also accused UK Queen Elizabeth II's son, Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was 17, had been long seeking to reveal the names of several 'John Does' who purportedly had sex with young women procured for them by Maxwell and the US financier.

Giuffre had claimed that Epstein sexually abused her even though she was a minor and that Maxwell had aided in the abuse. The case brought by Giuffre in 2015 was settled in 2017. However, attorneys for Epstein sex abuser Giuffre had earlier asked the judge to unseal the material from the lawsuit and claimed that they contain “bast swathes of information” about both the financier and socialite’s “sex trafficking operation.”

Revealing that Maxwell is no longer fighting to keep the names mentioned in that case a secret, Maxwell's attorney Laura Menninger wrote in a letter to the judge stating, “After careful review of the detailed objections submitted by Non-Party Does 17, 53, 54, 55, 73, 93 and 151, counsel for Ghislaine Maxwell writes to inform the Court that she does not wish to further address those objections…Each of the listed Does has counsel who have ably asserted their own respective privacy rights. Ms Maxwell, therefore, leaves it to this Court to conduct the appropriate review,” as per the report.

Giuffre’s lawyers had filed the brief on Wednesday

Maxwell’s attorney responded after Giuffre’s lawyer had filed a brief on Wednesday arguing for the names to be revealed. According to the report, Giuffre's attorney Sigrid McCawley wrote, “Generalized aversion to embarrassment and negativity that may come from being associated with Epstein and Maxwell is not enough to warrant continued sealing of information. This is especially true with respect to this case of great public interest, involving serious allegations of the sex trafficking of minors”.

McCawley further added, “Now that Maxwell's criminal trial has come and gone, there is little reason to retain protection over the vast swaths of information about Epstein and Maxwell's sex-trafficking operation that was originally filed under seal in this case”. Giuffre’s attorney also said that the court had already rejected similar arguments for anonymity and the same standard should be applied to eight ‘John Does’ who still remain anonymous in court documents. 

"Upon review of the objections of those Does, it is apparent that their objections essentially mirror objections to unsealing that this Court has already rejected: that unsealing certain documents might be embarrassing, would expose non-parties to media attention and could result in some unfortunate association between the non-parties and Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell," McCawley wrote, as per CNN. 

On December  29, 60-year-old Maxwell was found guilty of five of six charges for her involvement in grooming young girls to be sexually abused by Epstein in his mansions across the United States. She now faces up to 65 years in prison.

Image: AP