Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers blast ‘unconstitutional’ law, desperately try to keep new 90,000 Epstein documents under wraps

Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell are challenging the requested release of an additional 90,000 pages of documents connected to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and Maxwell herself. They’re arguing that a law used to force the public release of millions of documents is unconstitutional.

These legal papers were filed late Friday in Manhattan federal court, aiming to block the document release. According to AP News, the files stem from a civil defamation lawsuit that the late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre brought against Maxwell a decade ago, which has since been settled. The Justice Department recently requested that a judge lift the secrecy requirements on these files, pushing for their public disclosure.

Maxwell’s attorneys, Laura Menninger and Jeffrey Pagliuca, claim that the Justice Department got these documents improperly during its criminal investigation of Maxwell, even though they were supposed to be under secrecy orders. They’re telling the court that these documents are packed with private information, including transcripts from over 30 depositions, and sensitive financial and sexual details about Maxwell and other people involved.

Given the timing, this seems suspect

They argue that a law Congress passed in December, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, violates the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine. They firmly believe that Congress doesn’t have the authority to bypass the judicial system’s role in protecting its own files.

“Congress cannot, by statute, strip this Court of the power or relieve it of the responsibility to protect its files from misuse,” Menninger and Pagliuca wrote in their filing. “To do so violates the separation of powers.” They further emphasized that under the Constitution, neither Congress nor the Executive Branch can interfere with the judicial power, which includes the court’s ability to resolve cases and disputes definitively.

Previous releases of Epstein-related documents have already brought new revelations about his decades-long sexual abuse of women and teenage girls. However, the files released thus far have been filled with questionable redactions, where a lot of information about the victims was available, while the abusers were blacked out. Both Victims and Congress lawmakers have raised concerns about this issue, and that only half the files have been released.

DOJ officials, on the other hand, have stated that everything has been released, except for some files that are still waiting on a judge’s go-ahead. Their push with these records seems to be to open up these files even though some records from the original lawsuit have already been made public, thanks to a federal appeals court order.

Maxwell, who is 64, was convicted in December 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Just two weeks ago, she declined to answer questions from House Oversight Committee lawmakers during a video deposition from her prison camp. Through her lawyer, she indicated she was “prepared to speak fully and honestly” if she were granted clemency.