July 29, 2020 | 8:04pm | Updated July 29, 2020 | 10:03pm
A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday evening agreed to postpone unsealing depositions related to the sex life of Ghislaine Maxwell until the alleged madam can file an appeal.
The order by Judge Loretta Preska will, for two business days, block the release of documents that relate to a deposition Maxwell gave as part of a now-settled civil defamation lawsuit filed against her in 2015 by Jeffrey Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.
Preska ordered the documents unsealed in a court hearing last week, but gave Maxwell’s legal team a week to file an appeal with the Second Circuit Court.
If the circuit court does not order them to remain sealed, the documents will be made public Monday, according to Preska’s order.
In her memo Wednesday evening, Preska also rejected Maxwell’s request that she reconsider her own decision to unseal the documents.
In a filing earlier Wednesday, lawyers for Maxwell argued Giuffre’s legal team improperly turned over the confidential material to prosecutors who were building a criminal case against the alleged Epstein fixer.
“Ms. Maxwell’s request for reconsideration hinges on her assertion that new developments, i.e., her indictment and arrest, provide compelling reasons for keeping the deposition transcripts sealed,” Preska wrote in the order.
“But, despite Ms. Maxwell’s contention that she could not address the effect of those events in her objections because they occurred after the close of briefing, this is plowed ground,” she added.
Maxwell is awaiting trial on sex trafficking and perjury charges for allegedly procuring girls for Epstein to abuse in the 1990s.
