Judge chides Ghislaine Maxwell for mentioning victim names in papers
seeking to overturn conviction
[December 23, 2025]
By MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Monday scolded Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime
confidant Ghislaine Maxwell for including confidential victim names in
court papers seeking to set aside her 2021 sex trafficking conviction
and free her from a 20-year prison sentence.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said exhibits included with Maxwell’s habeas
petition — which she filed on her own, without a lawyer — will be kept
under seal and out of public view “until they have been reviewed and
appropriately redacted to protect the identities of victims.”
Any future papers Maxwell files must be submitted under seal, the judge
wrote.
He said he “reminds Maxwell, in strong terms, that she is prohibited
from including in any public filings any information identifying
victim(s) who were not publicly identified by name during her trial.”
A message seeking comment was left with Maxwell's lawyer, David Markus.
Maxwell filed the petition last Wednesday, two days before the Justice
Department started releasing investigative records pertaining to her and
Epstein in accordance with the recently enacted Epstein Files
Transparency Act.
Maxwell contends that information that would have resulted in her
exoneration was withheld and that false testimony was presented to the
jury. She said the cumulative effect of the constitutional violations
resulted in a “complete miscarriage of justice.”
Engelmayer said Maxwell has until Feb. 17, 2026, to notify him whether
she plans to include any information from the so-called Epstein files in
her petition and must file an amended version by March 31, 2026.
A slow, heavily redacted release of files
Protecting victim identifies has been a key sticking point in the
Justice Department’s ongoing release.
The department has said it plans to release records on a rolling basis
by the end of the year, blaming the delay on the time-consuming process
of obscuring victims’ names and other identifying information. So far,
the department hasn’t given any notice when new records arrive.
That approach angered some accusers and members of Congress who fought
to pass the transparency act. Records that were released, including
photographs, interview transcripts, call logs, court records and other
documents, were either already public or heavily blacked out, and many
lacked necessary context.
The Senate’s top Democrat on Monday urged colleagues to take legal
action over the incremental and heavily redacted release.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced a resolution that, if passed,
would direct the Senate to file or join lawsuits aimed at forcing the
Justice Department to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act,
the law enacted last month that required disclosure of records by last
Friday.
“Instead of transparency, the Trump administration released a tiny
fraction of the files and blacked out massive portions of what little
they provided,” Schumer, D-N.Y. said in a statement. “This is a blatant
cover-up.”
In lieu of Republican support, Schumer’s resolution is largely symbolic.
The Senate is off until Jan. 5, more than two weeks after the deadline.
Even then, it’ll likely face an uphill battle for passage. But it allows
Democrats to continue a pressure campaign for disclosure that
Republicans had hoped to put behind them.
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This undated photo released by the U.S. Department of Justice shows
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. (U.S. Department of Justice
via AP)
There were few revelations in the tens of thousands of pages of
records that have been released so far. Some of the most eagerly
awaited records, such as FBI victim interviews and internal memos
shedding light on charging decisions, weren’t there.
Nor were there any mentions of some powerful figures who’ve been in
Epstein’s orbit, like Britain’s former Prince Andrew.
Some files removed, then restored
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Sunday defended the Justice
Department’s decision to release just a fraction of the files by the
deadline as necessary to protect survivors of sexual abuse by the
disgraced financier.
Blanche pledged that the Trump administration would meet its
obligation required by law. But he stressed that the department was
obligated to act with caution as it goes about making public
thousands of documents that can include sensitive information. And
he said legal precedent had long established that obligations to
protect the privacy of victims permit authorities to go beyond
deadlines to ensure they are protected.
Blanche, the Justice Department’s second-in-command, also defended
its decision to remove several files related to the case from its
public webpage, including a photograph showing Trump, less than a
day after they were posted.
The missing files, which were available Friday but no longer
accessible by Saturday, included images of paintings depicting nude
women, and one showed a series of photographs along a credenza and
in drawers. In that image, inside a drawer among other photos, was a
photograph of Trump alongside Epstein, Melania Trump and Epstein’s
longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Blanche said the documents were removed because of a concern that
they might also show victims of Epstein. Blanche said the Trump
photo and the other documents would be reposted once redactions, if
necessary, were made to protect survivors.
The Trump photograph was returned to the public webpage without
alterations Sunday after it was determined that a concern by some
government workers that victims may have been depicted in the
picture proved unfounded, the Justice Department said.
“We are not redacting information around President Trump, around any
other individual involved with Mr. Epstein, and that narrative,
which is not based on fact at all, is completely false,” Blanche
told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Blanche said Trump, a Republican, has labeled the Epstein matter “a
hoax” because “there’s this narrative out there that the Department
of Justice is hiding and protecting information about him, which is
completely false.”
“The Epstein files existed for years and years and years and you did
not hear a peep out of a single Democrat for the past four years and
yet ... lo and behold, all of a sudden, out of the blue, Senator
Schumer suddenly cares about the Epstein files,” Blanche said.
“That’s the hoax.”
___
Associated Press reporter Kevin Freking in Washington contributed to
this report.
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