A federal judge on Tuesday refused a request by NBC News to unseal the identities of two women who were once described by prosecutors as potential co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein, saying threats to their safety and privacy persist.
In a written decision, Judge Richard M. Berman rejected the news organization's bid to make public names that were redacted from a July 2019 government letter filed in opposition to Epstein’s bail. NBC attorney Alexander Ziccardi had invoked the First Amendment and argued there was a “presumptive right of access” to the information. The Justice Department and lawyers for the two women had opposed the unsealing.
Prosecutors’ July 2019 letter, filed at a bail hearing, answered questions raised by Berman about two unidentified individuals prosecutors cited in arguing against releasing Epstein on bail. The filing said the women’s names had already been publicly associated with Epstein and his alleged sexual abuse of girls and young women over two decades, and it reported that Epstein had made payments to them in late 2018: $100,000 to one woman and $250,000 to the other. Prosecutors said the larger payment was to a woman identified in the indictment as one of Epstein’s employees who allegedly facilitated trafficking in part by contacting victims and arranging meetings at his Manhattan and Palm Beach residences.
Defense lawyers for the women strongly opposed the disclosure. One attorney told the court his client had been the subject of death threats stemming from misinformation and that the FBI had investigated and found her to be credible, the judge noted. Counsel for the other woman said investigators concluded both women were “severely victimized by Jeffrey Epstein” and argued they should receive the same protections afforded to other victims in the case.
Berman wrote that releasing the names would threaten the individuals’ safety and privacy, and he concluded the competing interests favored keeping the records sealed. The judge did not order the public disclosure sought by NBC News.
Federal authorities in New York arrested Epstein in July 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges after saying they were not bound by a 2007 nonprosecution agreement he signed with federal prosecutors in Florida. The 2007 agreement had provided protection for the two women referenced in the 2019 filing, a point prosecutors acknowledged in their letter. Epstein died in a federal jail in August 2019 in what was ruled a suicide.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a former associate of Epstein, was convicted in December 2021 on sex trafficking-related charges and is serving a 20-year prison sentence. The handling of Epstein’s earlier Florida nonprosecution agreement and subsequent federal cases in New York have remained subjects of intense public and legal scrutiny.
NBC and attorney Alexander Ziccardi did not immediately return messages seeking comment. A spokesperson for prosecutors declined to comment on the ruling.