I don't believe for a second that the names will be released. If any names are released, they will be carefully chosen.
December 19, 2023
A lot of people with ties to Epstein are very nervous right now
By Andrea Widburg
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/12/a_lot_of_people_with_ties_to_epstein_are_very_nervous_right_now.htmlThe headlines are impressive: A federal district court judge has ordered that documents containing the names of more than 150 Jeffrey Epstein “associates” must be released after January 1. However, before getting too excited, there are some caveats. Overall, though, this does rank as a good thing.
In 2015, Virginia Guiffre sued Epstein’s procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, alleging that Maxwell facilitated Guiffre’s sexual exploitation at Epstein’s hands. The two of them settled in 2017. Since then, there’s been a push to “un-redact” existing documents that identify people “associated” with Jeffrey Epstein but who were named only as “John Doe” or “Jane Doe.” In addition, there are apparently documents that were filed under seal and never released at all.
Judge Loretta Preska, a United States District Judge in the Southern District of New York and a George H. W. Bush appointee, has now issued an order mandating that the names must be unsealed. However, she included a caveat to that order: “The Court stays its order for fourteen days to permit any impacted Doe the opportunity to appeal…” Once that 14-day period expires, “counsel are asked to confer, prepare the documents for unsealing pursuant to this order, and post the documents on the docket.”
Image: Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell as imagined by AI (note the funky fingers).
There are a few comments to make here. First, “associates” can mean a lot of things, so we’re not necessarily going to get the names of people who engaged in sex crimes. Nor does someone being named prove that he or she even committed a sex crime. A lot of rich and famous people hung about Epstein because he was rich and famous.
Moreover, a lot of non-criminally inclined people nevertheless get a frisson of pleasure from associating with certain types of criminals. I learned that decades ago in Dallas when people I knew thought it was thrilling to go to a mediocre pizza place that was reputed to be a mob money laundering site.
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Second, a lot of the names may already be familiar to us from other revelations about Jeffrey Epstein. Thus, if Bill Gates’s name crops up but doesn’t implicate him in illegal activity…well, we already knew that.
Third, expect the people named to come from both sides of the political aisle. As we are repeatedly reminded, when power and money collide, no one is immune to moral corruption. Moreover, according to Forbes,
It’s not clear who will be named, but Preska’s list of the unsealed names suggest they include law enforcement, individuals whose names were listed in Epstein’s address book, a journalist who investigated Epstein, Epstein’s employees and victims of his sexual abuse, among others.
Fourth, one has to wonder about the procedure for filing those objections to having one’s name released. After all, only those named will do the filing, which means that, by filing an appeal, they’re effectively outing themselves. Interestingly, the order doesn’t say anything about those filings being made under seal. However, since I haven’t followed the case, maybe that’s already a standing order, so it goes without saying.
Fifth, the list is obviously incomplete because it only includes those who intersected with Guiffre’s claim. It’s just a subset of the Epstein universe. In other words, even if every one of the names were released after January 1, there would almost certainly be rich, powerful, and creepy people who still lurk in the shadows.
