Second Circuit refuses to unseal Epstein files in defamation case but orders review

MANHATTAN (CN) — A Second Circuit Court of Appeals panel kept under seal documents in the defamation case against Ghislaine Maxwell, but ordered the district court in the case to look into potentially unsealing them.

In the 31-page opinion released Wednesday, the trio of judges for the Second Circuit wrote that “we identify no error in the district court’s decisions not to unseal or make public many of the documents at issue."

However, the lower court should “conduct an individual review of the motion materials … and order unsealing as appropriate,” the Second Circuit wrote.

The underlying complaint was brought in 2015 by Virginia Giuffre, one of the most high-profile victims of Jeffrey Epstein, who claimed Maxwell defamed her by calling her accusations of sex trafficking “obvious lies.”

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown, who had joined the case as a plaintiff, covered the Epstein sex scandal and has sought to unearth many of the sealed documents in the case along with other journalists and activists. Even after the parties settled the defamation suit in May 2017, the documents remained under seal.

The appeals court noted the documents at issue were “judicial documents” at the time they were filed and remain as such to this day. As a result, undecided motions to unseal the documents were not rendered moot because of the settlement between the parties.

Last year, a federal judge unsealed hundreds of pages of documents in the case, including a transcript of Maxwell denying she ever trafficked Giuffre. The files were eagerly awaited by the public at the time, but they merely mentioned the names of those who knew or associated with Maxwell and Epstein and did not suggest they participated in trafficking or other wrongdoing.

In a footnote, the Second Circuit added the federal court overseeing the case should review the sealed documents to see if they should be made public. “To the extent documents should never have been placed under seal at the start, reducing the original presumption of access based on subsequent mootness does not warrant allowing the error to stand,” the court wrote.

The Second Circuit also noted Maxwell did not show Giuffre or the Herald conceded judicial orders in 2019 and 2020 were final. “On the contrary, the district court acknowledged that such materials might yet be unsealed as relevant to decided motions,” the opinion stated.

In particular, the court overturned a previous 2022 ruling and ordered the Southern District of New York to review whether parts of Giuffre’s deposition transcript should be unsealed.

The Second Circuit also asked the lower court to review documents from unnamed “non-parties” in the sex trafficking case whose privacy and reputation could be implicated by the unsealing.

“We are confident that, on remand, the able district judge will consider these factors in individually reviewing the Doe filings and the underlying documents … and then deciding which filings (or parts of filings) can be unsealed,” the appellate judges wrote.

Attorney Sigrid McCawley of Boies Schiller Flexner, who represents Giuffre, said in an email she was “thrilled with the decision.” In a separate statement, she said “we are hopeful that this order leads to the release of more information about Epstein’s monstrous sex trafficking operation and those who facilitated it and participated in it.”

Attorneys at the firm Haddon, Morgan & Foreman representing Maxwell did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

The documents in this case are separate from but may overlap in content with those related to the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein. Initially, Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to release those documents under orders from President Donald Trump, despite bipartisan calls by legislators to do so. After public outcry, however, the Justice Department asked the federal court to unseal grand jury transcripts in the criminal case against Epstein.

In 2022, Maxwell was given a 20-year sentence for her role in helping Epstein procure and traffic underage girls for the purposes of sex. Maxwell has portrayed herself as another victim of Epstein, despite decades associating with him.

Giuffre, who claims she was instructed to have sex with Prince Andrew while she was under the age of consent, died by suicide on April 25 at the age of 41, weeks after getting into a horrific car crash.

The panel included U.S. Circuit judges Jose Cabranes, Reena Raggi, and Myrna Perez. Cabranes was appointed to the Second Circuit by Bill Clinton, Raggi by George W. Bush and Perez by Joe Biden.

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