Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers filed a motion Thursday to keep a July 2016 deposition she gave about her sordid sex life under wraps.
She doubled down on the same arguments she made in her unsuccessful bid to keep an earlier deposition secret.
Her attorneys argued that releasing the deposition — given in 2016 as part of Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre’s now settled civil suit — would jeopardize her right to a fair criminal trial, embarrass her and violate a protective order that promised to keep the proceeding private.
“She appeared at the July 2016 deposition and answered hundreds of pages worth of questions concerning her ‘own sexual activity’ and ‘her knowledge of the sexual activities of others,’” wrote lawyer Laura Menninger of the humiliating interview.
After U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ordered the release of the earlier April 2016 deposition and other sensitive documents, Maxwell’s lawyers took their case to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The higher court sided with Preska.
The 465-page deposition was released in October and detailed the seamy relationship between Maxwell, 58, and the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Maxwell was grilled for seven hours on topics that included Prince Andrew, with whom Giuffre has said she was forced to have sex, her ties to former President Bill Clinton, who was pals with Epstein — and the existence of a “laundry basket of sex toys” kept at the late financier’s mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Prince Andrew has denied the allegation.
The British socialite was arrested in July on a six-count federal indictment alleging that she trafficked underage girls to be abused by her and Epstein. The indictment includes two counts of perjury for allegedly lying about Epstein’s deviant sexual behavior in both 2016 civil depositions.
“It is not possible to overstate the close relationship between the documents plaintiff wants to unseal in this case and the criminal prosecution the government is pursuing next door,” wrote Menninger of the July 2016 deposition, which serves as a crucial piece of evidence to support one of the perjury counts.
“The press, the government, and plaintiff have made every effort o try Ms. Maxwell as a proxy for the now deceased Mr. Epstein,” the attorney wrote. Epstein allegedly committed suicide in federal lockup while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell, who’s being held without bail at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, is slated to go to trial July 12, 2021, in Manhattan federal court.
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