More than 170 Jeffrey Epstein associates to be named in January

More than 170 associates of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to be named in public next month after a ruling by a New York court.

Judge Loretta Preska’s order is part of a defamation case involving Virginia Giuffre and  Ghislaine Maxwell, the British socialite and convicted sex-trafficker.

Those whose names are to be disclosed include sex abuse victims, litigation witnesses and Epstein’s employees.

Prince Andrew is expected to be among them, if evidence is released from a woman who claims he sexually assaulted her in 2001.

Anyone on the list will have until Jan 1 to appeal to have their name removed from it.

For several years, Judge Preska has reviewed documents sought by the Miami Herald from the civil case involving Maxwell and Ms Giuffre.

The case was settled in 2017 and many of the records related to the lawsuit have been publicly released in the past few years.

However, the names of scores of Epstein associates remained under a court-ordered seal.

On Monday, Judge Preska made determinations about some portions of the records that were initially withheld on potential privacy grounds and what can be made public about certain people mentioned.

In many instances, she noted that individuals had given media interviews or that their names had previously emerged publicly in various ways, including at Maxwell’s trial two years ago.

Judge Preska’s 51-page ruling, issued on Monday, called for Epstein’s connections to be “unsealed in full”.

Among the records are 40 documents of evidence from Johanna Sjoberg, who has claimed Prince Andrew groped her breast while sitting on a couch inside Epstein’s Manhattan apartment in 2001.

Buckingham Palace has previously denied the allegations, saying they are “categorically untrue”.

Judge Preska concluded that some portions of the records should remain confidential, including those identifying people who were children when they were sexually abused by Epstein and had tried to maintain their privacy.

Epstein took his own life in a New York prison in August 2019 as he awaited trial on charges of sex trafficking and raping young girls.

He was accused of luring numerous underage girls to his homes under the guise of giving him massages, and then sexually abusing them.

Maxwell, 61, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after she was convicted in December 2021 of helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse underage girls.

The pair were a couple in the early 1990s before becoming collaborators and accomplices in sex crimes that stretched over almost three decades.