A judge ordered the identities of John Does, who were involved in the court battle between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein, to be made public Friday.
According to Business Insider, Judge Preska ruled that the public interest in identifying John Does outweighs the privacy concerns of the individuals mentioned in the documents.
The identity of John Doe, who was mentioned several times during the trial of Maxwell, will remain hidden until November 28 to allow him to appeal. Judge Preska stated during a hearing that she believed that the public should be able to identify John Does, but she delayed that order to allow him to file an appeal.
According to the report, Judge Preska noted that the media coverage of John Doe's relationship with Epstein has resulted in his name being featured in various places in the trial transcript. She also stated that there's no reason to redact his name from the documents.
Details about John Does were included in the defamation case between Maxwell and Giuffre, which eventually ended in a settlement. Alan Dershowitz, who represented Maxwell, had also asked to unseal the documents in order to disprove her claims against him.
Giuffre, who claims that she was trafficked by Epstein, initially accused Alan Dershowitz of sexual abuse. However, she recently admitted that she might have made a mistake in identifying him as the perpetrator.
Following her conviction for sex trafficking, Maxwell decided not to ask to keep her name and those of John Does secret. Two of the individuals mentioned in the unsealing order claimed that Epstein was guilty of wrongdoing.
Among the individuals mentioned in the unsealed order is Sarah Ransome, who detailed how she was abused by Epstein in her book. Another individual's name would also remain hidden due to ongoing trauma.
Actress and former Maxwell assistant Emmy Tayler was also included in the unsealing order. She filed a lawsuit against a reporter after she was mischaracterized in a report about her experience with Maxwell and Epstein.
The judge also stated that many of the individuals mentioned in the order had minimal ties to Maxwell and Epstein. Some of these include Thomas Pritzker, a hotel magnate who is the cousin of JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois.
The ruling mainly settles the issue of the 16 names that Maxwell dropped her objections to, with the remaining one, John Doe 183, still outstanding. Since the settlement was made, various documents related to the case have been released to the public. Separate from the case, Maxwell was also sentenced to spend 20 years in prison for her work with Epstein.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on Washington Examiner.
