Part of Hundreds of Pages of Sealed Court Files on Jeffrey Epstein Unsealed on January 3
A portion of hundreds of pages of previously sealed court documents related to convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein was made public on January 3 — and within minutes, the website hosting them crashed.
CourtListener, a site run by the nonprofit Free Law Project, had uploaded 40 pages of the documents tied to Epstein’s court proceedings. Moments later, the site became inaccessible due to maintenance or server overload. However, the documents remain available through PACER, the public access system for U.S. federal court records.
The unsealed files are part of a lawsuit filed by Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, who was accused of recruiting and organizing the trafficking of underage girls. Although the case was settled in 2017, Maxwell’s attorneys sought to keep the names of those linked to Epstein confidential — a request lifted in 2022, a year after Maxwell was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
In December, Judge Loretta Preska of the New York court ordered the release of the sealed records. Giuffre also separately sued Prince Andrew for sexual assault and emotional distress before reaching a settlement in 2022. The Prince has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
While many names remain redacted, the release has reignited public scrutiny. The Miami Herald, which led the investigation that helped expose Epstein’s crimes in 2019, previously faced a 2018 lawsuit after pushing to make the case files public.
Epstein maintained close ties with billionaires, royals, and celebrities before pleading guilty to soliciting minors. Among those linked to him were Prince Andrew, reportedly “very close” to Epstein; former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak; former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland; tech mogul Sergey Brin; billionaire Bill Gates; U.S. CIA Director William Burns; and U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
In the documentary Secrets of Prince Andrew, model Lisa Phillips claimed she saw the Prince at Little St. James in 2000 — the private Caribbean island where Epstein allegedly trafficked victims. Royal biographer Andrew Lownie also revealed that Epstein and Maxwell were invited to royal retreats such as Balmoral and Sandringham, and even to a private birthday party at Windsor.
The Wall Street Journal reported that supermodel Naomi Campbell once knew Epstein, though her spokesperson said she had no idea he was using her name to lure young women interested in modeling, calling his claims “gross exaggerations.”
Dozens of women accused Epstein of forcing them into sexual acts for himself and his powerful associates at his private island and residences in New York, Florida, and New Mexico.
Epstein, who was a JPMorgan Chase client from 1998 to 2013, was arrested in July 2019 on charges of sex trafficking minors between 2002 and 2005, some as young as 14. He allegedly paid victims hundreds of dollars after each encounter.
He died in August 2019 at age 66 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial. The medical examiner ruled his death a suicide.
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