ISLAMABAD: A judge has ruled that the names of two women linked to Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse case will remain confidential for their safety, rejecting NBC’s bid for public disclosure.
A federal judge decided to keep confidential the identities of two women once considered potential co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein, citing ongoing safety and privacy concerns. This follows an NMC News request to unseal their names, which was opposed by the women’s lawyers and the US Justice Department. Judge Richard Berman ruled that threats to the women’s safety persist and releasing their identities would ‘endanger’ them.
NBC News attorney Alexander Ziccardi had argued under the first amendment of the United States’ constitution that the public has a “presumptive right of access” to the names redacted from a July 2019 government letter addressed to Judge Berman. The letter, submitted by prosecutors opposing Epstein’s bail, responded to the judge’s questions about two unidentified individuals referenced in the legal arguments.
Prosecutors acknowledged that both women had publicly been associated with Epstein and allegations of sexual abuse spanning over two decades. Epstein had secured these women’s protection through a 2007 nonprosecution agreement with Florida federal prosecutors.
In late 2018, following renewed media attention on Epstein’s abuses and the earlier deal he struck, he paid one woman $100,000 and the other $250,000. Federal authorities in New York, who stated they were not bound by the Florida agreement, later arrested Epstein in July 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges.
The 2019 letter noted that the woman paid $250,000 was identified in the indictment as one of Epstein’s employees. The indictment accused her and two other employees of facilitating trafficking by contacting victims and arranging sexual encounters with Epstein at his residences in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida.
The women’s lawyers recently opposed public disclosure of their names. One attorney revealed that Epstein’s payment recipient faced death threats due to misinformation and was cleared after an FBI investigation. Another lawyer stated both women were “severely victimized by Jeffrey Epstein” and deserved the same protections given to other victims.
Epstein died by apparent suicide in a New York federal jail in August 2019 before his trial commenced. His former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted on sex trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence.
