A vocal Jeffrey Epstein accuser is asking jurors to open his court records

NEW YORK (AP) — One of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s most vocal accusers urged judges Wednesday to grant a Justice Department request to unseal records from their federal sex-trafficking cases, saying “only transparency can lead to justice.”

Annie Farmer, through her lawyer Sigrid S. McCauley, weighed in after judges asked for input from victims before deciding whether to release records under a new law requiring the government to open files on the late financier and his longtime confidante, who sexually abused young women and girls for decades.

Farmer and other victims fought to pass legislation known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Signed by President Donald Trump last month, it forces the Justice Department, FBI and federal prosecutors by Dec. 19 to release the vast troves of material they gathered during the Epstein investigation.

The Justice Department last week ordered Manhattan federal judges Richard M. Berman and Paul A. Engelmeyer to lift secret orders on a wide range of records from Epstein’s 2019 sex-trafficking case and Maxwell’s 2021 case, including grand jury transcripts and other materials, including search warrants, financial records and interviews with victims.

“Nothing in these proceedings should stand in the way of their victory or provide a backdoor to continue to cover up the most notorious sex trafficking operation in history,” McCauley wrote in a letter to the judges.

The attorney criticized the government for failing to prosecute Epstein and anyone else in Maxwell’s class. She asked the justices to ensure that any order they issue does not prevent the Justice Department from releasing other Epstein-related materials.

Farmer “is wary of the possibility that others will use any denial of the motion as a pretext or pretext to withhold important information regarding Epstein’s crimes,” McCauley wrote.

Epstein, a multimillionaire money manager known for socializing with celebrities, politicians, billionaires and the academic elite, killed himself in prison a month after his 2019 arrest.

Maxwell was convicted by a federal sex-trafficking grand jury in 2021 of helping recruit some of Epstein’s minor victims and participating in some of the abuse. She is serving 20 years in prison.

In a court filing Wednesday, Maxwell’s attorney again said she is preparing a habeas petition to overturn her conviction. The attorney, David Marcus, first mentioned the habeas petition in court documents in August as she fought the Justice Department’s initial bid to unseal her case records. In October the Supreme Court refused to hear Maxwell’s appeal.

Marcus said in Wednesday’s filing that if Maxwell no longer “stands down” after the passage of the Transparency Act, doing so would cause “undue prejudice so severe as to preclude the possibility of a fair retrial” if his habeas petition is successful.

The record, Marcus said, “contains unsubstantiated and unsubstantiated allegations.”

Engelmeyer, who is weighing whether to release records from Maxwell’s case, gave him and the victims until Wednesday to respond to the Justice Department’s unsealing request. The government must respond to their filing by December 10. The judge said he would rule “immediately thereafter.”

Berman, who is presiding over the Epstein case, ordered the victims and Epstein’s estate to respond by Wednesday and gave the government until Dec. 8 to respond to those submissions. Berman said he would “do my best to resolve this proposal promptly.”

Attorneys for Epstein’s estate said in a letter to Berman on Wednesday that the estate takes no position on the Justice Department’s unsealing request. Advocates noted that the government is committed to appropriate corrections of personal identification information for victims.

Last week, a lawyer for some of the victims complained that the House Oversight Committee had failed to redact or black out their names from tens of thousands of pages of Epstein-related documents released in recent months.

Transparency “cannot come at the expense of the privacy, safety, and protection of victims of sexual abuse and sex trafficking, especially these survivors who are already repeatedly victimized,” attorney Brad Edwards wrote.