'”[W]hatever Cooper & Kirk’s intentions in requesting and obtaining the Maxwell materials from Boies Schiller, the Maxwell Protective Order explicitly provides that (1) discovery materials designated CONFIDENTIAL cannot be disclosed or used outside of the confines of the Maxwell action and (2) that properly designated discovery materials may only be disclosed to specific groups of individuals, including attorneys “actively working on” the Maxwell litigation.The judge ordered the following course of action:Wednesday’s decision presents a decidedly Kafkaesque turn of events for Giuffre and her legal team’s continued efforts.But the ruling made pains to both-sides the access issue.That explanation didn’t land well with the SDNY judge: Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan ruled on Thursday to unseal more than 80 documents that Ghislaine Maxwell had wanted to keep under wraps; Preska said the documents – which will run to hundreds of pages – should be … A federal court in New York City has moved to further restrict access to long-sought-after secret files in the Jeffrey Epstein saga. Preska also said personal identifying information contained in the documents, as well as the names of many “non-parties,” will be redacted. We've received your submission.Would you like to receive desktop browser notifications about breaking news and other major stories?Giuffre was 17 when she says she was recruited to give Epstein massages in Florida and allegedly sexually abused by him.A Manhattan judge will rule Thursday on whether to unseal dozens of court documents that could expose a number of names linked to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.The filings include part of a seven-hour, 418-page deposition Maxwell gave in 2016, in which her lawyers say she was subjected to “intrusive” questions about her sex life.“The subject matter … is extremely personal, confidential and subject to considerable abuse by the media,” Maxwell’s lawyer Jeffrey Pagliuca wrote last month.Maxwell’s lawyers have argued that unsealing the documents could jeopardize Maxwell’s criminal sex abuse case and expose many “non-parties.” The order also reflected multiple parties’ views that granting the request would probably blow up the overall unsealing efforts:[Images via Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images, YouTube/ The Guardian, YouTube/CBS This Morning screengrabs]Dershowitz, however, recently requested unencumbered access to those files and more–asking the Southern District of New York (SDNY) to modify and make him a party to the original protective order because it would help him in his ongoing defamation lawsuit.Preska went on to explain that the protective order only provides access to the “preparation and trial” of Giuffre’s settled lawsuit against Maxwell and since that lawsuit is inactive, “Cooper & Kirk necessarily cannot play an active role in litigating them.”While expressing dismay at Giuffre’s attorneys access to the Epstein files, Judge Preska employed an extended modern warfare metaphor to dismiss Dershowitz’s request for those same documents.Law&Crime reached out to both and Cooper & Kirk and Dershowitz for comment and clarification on this story but no response was forthcoming at the time of publication.Ghislaine Maxwell, Virginia Giuffre, Alan Dershowitz“Mr. Dershowitz’s request is denied,” the court ruled.“[T]the Court was troubled to learn at the June 23 oral argument that replacement counsel for Ms. Giuffre, Cooper & Kirk, had received from Ms. Giuffre’s former counsel, Boies Schiller Flexner, the Maxwell materials at issue in their entirety,” the judge chidingly explained.
A federal judge has ordered the unsealing of key documents, including depositions, from a settled civil lawsuit involving Ghislaine Maxwell and victims alleging sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein. Virginia Guiffre’s Lawyers Must Destroy Epstein Files, Judge Rules (Photo by Florida Department of Law Enforcement via Getty Images) Mary Margaret Olohan Social Issues Reporter. July 02, 2020 6:52 PM ET.