Federal judge of New York Loretta A. Preska has ordered the names of more than 180 of Jeffrey Epstein associates and victims to be made public in 2024 on Monday.
This list will include sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses, Epstein’s employees, and even some figures with only a passing connection, CBS News reports.
With this order, the names of Epstein conspirators will continue to grow as Preska’s 51-page ruling called for Epstein’s connections to be “unsealed in full.”
While many details surrounding the cases against Epstein have been made public, the judge has resolved with her order to unveil more to the public than what has previously been made known.
The order came from a continued dive by the judge into the sex trafficking case from 2019 and as an extension of Virginia Giuffre’s settled civil lawsuit against former British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, a main conspirator with Epstein.
Giuffre’s case in 2015 accused Maxwell of being “the mastermind” behind the Epstein trafficking ring, claiming Maxwell had attempted to recruit her for abuse. The lawsuit was eventually settled in 2017.
But Ghislaine Maxwell has been serving her 20-year-long prison sentence since 2021 due to new federal charges surrounding sex trafficking. Jeffrey Epstein, who faced similar counts, committed suicide in 2019 while he awaited trial. With his death, the charges were eventually dropped.
While Maxwell was one of the main figures accused, it was Epstein who shook the country and solidified his name within the public’s mind with his charges of sexual abuse and trafficking of minors by federal prosecutors. Victims included girls as young as 14 years old.
According to AP News, Epstein had attempted to dispose of such accusations nearly a decade prior with federal prosecutors, but the then 66-year-old hedge fund manager couldn’t escape this new federal indictment. The counts against him included one count of sex trafficking conspiracy and one count of sex trafficking with underage girls.
He was known to exploit and traffick young girls to his house for wealthy clients under the guise of “giving massages.”
What made the case even more startling was the elite social circle Epstein seemed to be associated with that may have been a part of his crimes. Epstein, who built up quite the friends list over the years, had figures like Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton. These names and more could soon be unveiled under Judge Loretta A. Preska’s order.
Prince Andrew and the royal family have denied being a part of Epstein’s trafficking ring, even though he remains one of the most high-profile and prevalent accused.
The Epstein case has made way for numerous conspiracies surrounding the rich and their connections to sex trafficking. But it also goes to show that we never truly know what’s going on behind the scenes with prominent public figures.
With this document, though, there needs to be a note of victims who were and are still children when the case occurred. Dredging up traumatic experiences through the release of the names could be a detriment to current well-being as well as personal safety and privacy. But the judge made sure to take note of this as she highlighted that their names and any other identifying information will continue to remain sealed.
The associates are not so lucky, nor should they be considering the nature of their crimes, as their names are set to be released as soon as January of 2024. They do have until January 1 to appeal, but it will certainly be interesting and telling to see who has made it on this list.
