Law&Crime Sidebar - Names Linked to Jeffrey Epstein To Be Unsealed in January

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

A New York judge ordered that court documents connected to infamous sex trafficker and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein be released in the new year. More than 170 people who have so far only been identified as John and Jane Does will have their names released. The list allegedly includes victims, employees, and other associates of Epstein. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber gets details on the document release from freelance journalist Daniel Bates.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. More than a hundred of Jeffrey Epstein's associates and contacts could be revealed in the new year as a trove of court documents are set to be released. We're digging deeper into what that could mean for those with alleged connections to the convicted sex offender, as well as the court case the documents are a part of, all with freelance journalist Daniel Bates, who has been following the story. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. He is one of the most infamous names worldwide. Everybody knows him. Jeffrey

Epstein, convicted sex offender. He died in a New York prison in August of 2019, as he was waiting trial on charges that he engaged in sex trafficking of young girls, he ended up hanging himself. But now, more than four years later, we are learning more about the people connected to him and his operation. Now, this all stems from a lawsuit that was filed by an alleged victim, Virginia Roberts. She claims that Epstein and his co-conspirator, Galane Maxwell, set up her to be assaulted by Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. Maxwell was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2021. She's currently serving a 20-year sentence in a Florida prison. But Roberts sued Maxwell for defamation in 2015, and the case was settled, but it didn't

end there because media outlets had requested all of these documents that were involved in the case. They wanted them to be made public. Well, now Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York has decided that over 150 names connected to Epstein and Maxwell will be unsealed. in full in all of these hundreds of files. But these are not just victims. It could be friends. It could be alleged associates, employees, and more.

These people have all been listed as John and Jane Doe's up until now. This is a very big development. It's looking like the public release will happen. January 1st, 2024. What a way to start the new year. So with that, I want to bring in Daniel Bates, a freelance journalist

who wrote a great piece on this on the Daily Mail. He's been following this case very closely. But first, let me just say, Daniel, good to see you. It's been several years that Daniel and I first met in New York when we were covering the Harvey Weinstein trial. We were out at 5 a.m. in the freezing cold together. So good to see you again. Yeah, good to see you. That was a test of physical endurance, that trial.

You know, it was amazing about that. It was literally like the verdict happened. And then I think it was the sentencing. And then it was like literally, what was it? a two weeks, no, a few days later, the pandemic hit. I remember being in that courtroom and I was like, something, I was like, this is amazing. Like the last time the public, we were all together somewhere.

Yeah, that's right. I remember cursing the court officer who kept opening the windows and now he's my hero, basically. Yep, yeah, there you go. There you go. All right, let's talk about Jeffrey Epstein. Let's first start. Why is this happening now?

Why did the judge decide to do this? Well, this has been sitting around for quite some time, you know, and it's the last batch of these documents. We've had, you know, six or seven now since 2019 when the first lot came out. And, you know, really, it's been waiting to happen for some time. And I'm not sure why the judge decided to do it now. Maybe it was the end of the year. She wanted to clear her decks.

But this has been, you know, in the offing for quite some time. And it's finally happened. So as you mentioned, what we're going to get is by my count, the details about 177 people who are associated with. Jeffrey Epstein. We don't have their names yet, but we have descriptions of some of them. They include Epstein's recruiters, his associates, some of the victims, and it's going to be a significant amount of information. So my understanding is, and correct me if I'm wrong, the judge, reason that it was okay to publish all these names, because many of them have already

been mentioned in the media, so there's going to be a number of names that we already know, and we can talk about who those people might be. But it seems also the judge said that it might not be as salacious as we thought, and, you know, that the details might not be, you know, so clear. So, because people might look at this and say, wait a minute, don't we know all these names? Don't we know a lot of what's been released? Why is this different? Yeah, I think the judge had to balance the sort of the right of the public to know with the

privacy interests of the individuals. And in 10 cases, she said that those details shouldn't be made public. because they were minor victims whose names haven't been out there. You know, and at the other end of the scale, you have high-profile people who have been written about a lot and have been the subject of a lot of media reporting already. Their names have been out there linked to Epstein. So, you know, there's little reason to sort of keep them private.

You know, these releases have been a mixed bag. Some have had really interesting stuff. Some have just been very dry legal documents. And the thing is that we don't know what's going to be in there. I think what I'm probably expecting more than anything else is more shades on what we already know. You know, sort of extra excerpts of depositions that we haven't necessarily seen before, you know, perhaps some police reports. You know, so the figures that we probably already know, but more information about them. You know, as to who they might be, I don't know, some of the famous men who associated with Jeffrey Epstein, as we know, included Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton.

So any inflame to them would, of course, you know, be explosive. But like I say, I'm not necessarily expecting any new names, but what I am expecting is more flesh on the bones of what we already knew, which if it does involve high-profile men, may be enough. That's so interesting you think it's not going to be necessarily new names, because I wonder, what would constitute somebody being in there? Is it somebody who just had a conversation with Jeffrey Epstein, was at a dinner with Jeffrey Epstein? I guess I'm trying to understand what would have made it important to be in the files that they are counted as one of the names that will be released. I mean, the way that names have come in already that we know, you know, people were named in depositions, for example, Virginia Roberts or Virginia Joufrey, she alleged that she was forced to have sex with a number of high profile men, including former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson

and billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin, both of who denied the claims. And she said that in a deposition which was unsealed in a previous batch of these, you know, other things, other allegations that were made in police documents and so forth. So I think it's, it's, we'll have to see what's in the documents, but in particular, I'm looking for, you know, expanded depositions from a couple of people. And in particular, one of Prince Andrews accusers, Joanna Schoberg. All right, we want to thank Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring this video. I think it's pretty clear from the stories that we cover that it is not always safe out there. When you're hurt, it can be pretty confusing. It can be scary and you really don't know where to turn. Well,

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no upfront fee. So if you're injured and you want to join the over three million people that call them every year, you can submit a claim at www. for the people.com slash LC. Sidebar or by dialing pound law, that's pound 529 on your phone. Is it going to be clear what the context is of this person and their connection, or is it something we're going to have to weed through, you know, what is the form in which we're going to see this, you know, January 1st hits? Is it just going to be a document dump and we have to sort through it to make sense of what it all is? Yeah, I think it's going to be a document dump. So you're just going to get a pile of stuff related to each John or Jane Doe and you're

going to have to go through it. So there'll probably be dry legal motions, you know, things that aren't necessarily very interesting. And the next document will be a fascinating deposition. So based on previous experience, it's going to be a real hodgepodge of stuff, a real mixture of things and you just have to go in and weed through it. Now, again, my understanding is, if anybody believes their names are in these documents, the judge has given them a way to get out, right?

Well, yeah. I mean, what's interesting about this last batch is that by and large, these weren't people who objected to their names coming out. You know, in the previous batches, it was far more contentious because those were the people who said, no, I don't want my names coming out. In some cases, there were lawyers in court. I'm arguing on behalf of them. But these are people who, for the most part, didn't raise any objection.

So they either don't care, not bothered, or just want to be done with it. So on the one hand, you could argue, well, you know, that means it's perhaps less salacious. On the other hand, perhaps these are people who just think, oh, I just want to move on. I don't want, you know, to fight it. Let's let the chips fall where they may. So, you know, you could argue that both ways. I don't think anybody wants their name with Jeffrey Epstein in any kind of context. I mean, look, so the judge has given anyone named in the documents two weeks.

to object to their information being made public. Otherwise, it is going to be released on New Year's Day or right after. How would they know their names are in there? I mean, that's the question, right? I mean, how would they know? And how would we know if anybody? Because I'm also thinking, like, if someone were to object, is that private? Is that sealed?

Will we not know if they object? So how would they know their names are even in the documents? And how could we know if they're anybody who objects? Well, going back to the start of this whole process, you know, years ago, now everyone who popped up in these files was originally notified you know so this isn't the first time they've had an opportunity to raise concerns so I guess judge Prescott is giving them a sort of final chance to to sort of say hey you know like I don't want my name out there so the court obviously knows who all these people are because they have the unsealed versions of the documents

and those names will not be made public or everyone else until until the whole process is completed. But yeah, I mean, they have had, you know, ample opportunity to, to, to register any objections. And if they register an objection between now, uh, in the next two weeks, will we know about it? Well, I think we would, I think we would know that someone's lodged an objection. I don't think we would know the identity of that person. And if their objection is successful, then, then we may never know their objection. So this news broke. It's been an interesting 24 hours. what have you seen from the response regarding this? How is the media amplified this message and used it?

I mean, what have you seen in terms of, because it is different. You know, it's not like flight logs or something like this. This is a significant development in my eyes and my eyes. What have you seen in terms of the response to this news? I mean, it's been picked up very, very widely. I mean, ABC News covered it. I saw the New York Post did and the number of other media outlets too. And I think it's because the scale of it, the shit,

a number of names. I mean, in previous cases, as I mentioned, they involved people who objected. So you were looking at a dozen or two dozen people. But here, you've got 177 people. So it's a lot of people. And I think the size and potential scale of it is what's really called people's attention. So it's had a big response and been picked up widely. What about from Virginia Roberts? Because she was the one who launched this lawsuit. Well, also the Miami Herald, you know, they're actually technically the ones who... Let me rephrase. Let me phrase. She launched a defamation suit, but yes, it was media outlets who wanted the public release. We haven't had any comments from Virginia yet.

I mean, I understand that, you know, her lawyers are the ones who have been helping to sort of push for the, you know, sort of increased public access with these documents in conjunction with the Miami Herald. So, you know, I guess her sort of her team's position is that they want as much public access as possible, but we haven't heard directly from her on this. And when we see who these names are, you know, the way we have to look at it, right, is it seems to me from what, you know, everything we know about the case, there were people who had connections to Epstein. It doesn't necessarily mean they knew about his operations.

But what I do think is interesting, their contact with him after he was convicted, right, after he pled guilty. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, anything to do with Epstein is absolutely kryptonite. But anyone who had, you know, dealings with him after he served 15 months in jail, you know, and came out, and I think that was in 2009, and by that point, he was a registered sex offender, you know, I mean, and he admitted having sex with underage girls, with minors. And yet people were still associating with him. So as we saw with Bill Gates this week, you know, the Wall Street Journal reported that in 2014, long after Epstein came out of prison, you know, he had a meeting with Epstein and a Polish model who was being abused by him. his office, is Microsoft office in Seattle, and you do have to wonder, you know, what on earth were you thinking? I mean, this guy is a sex offender, he's a paedophile, and you're inviting

him to your office in Seattle. It's just inexcusable. So if there's anyone who has any links or dealings with Epstein in that time frame, I think it would be very bad for them indeed. And you would imagine these documents would have dates on them. I mean, that's going to be significant, too, looking at that if we try to create a timeline. Yeah, that's right. I mean, I think we'll, you know, if it's a deposition, obviously, people will be asked, you know, when did this happen? When was this meeting? If there's other kinds of documents, you know, I think we'll have that. I mean, we had a massive release of information earlier this year with documents from the U.S. Virgin Islands, which had a lot of Epstein's

calendars and schedules. And I went through them and they were very good for dates. But I would imagine that there would be some kind of dates, you know, if a claim like that was made. And by the way, just to be clear for anybody who doesn't know, back in 2008, Epstein took what would say a controversial plea deal where he pled guilty to state charges out in Florida of one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18. I'm very curious what you expect from the fallout of this. So January 1st happens that week we see the names. I just don't know what we should all be expecting in terms of, you know, the questions, the responses, people's names are listed. Is it going to be a little bit of a crazy

storm? I think, you know, as I said, the previous releases from this case that Judge Prescott has approved have been a really mixed bag. Some of them have just been, you know, boring legal stuff, you know, motions, counter motions argument and so forth. You know, yet in another release, we had emails between Prince Andrew and Gillen Maxwell, which we'd never seen before, you know, showing the panic when she first went public with her, you know, her allegations against him. You know, Also, we had a sort of draft of Virginia's memoir, which was included in a previous unsealing. So, you know, again, the scale of it and the number of people involved means that it's hard to tell, you know, what might be in there or who might be in there, you know. So I think if it does come out in the first week of January, it's going to be a busy time for a lot of journalists, including me.

Yep. I don't envy you because you'll be doing like, you know, tons of doc review going through it all. But what a way to start 2024, which is already going to be a very weird year. Daniel Bates, thank you so much, sir. Really appreciate it. Thank you. All right, everybody. That is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.