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Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell aim to keep depositions secret

Gates surround the entrances to the Metropolitan Detention Center on July 10 in New York City, where Ghislaine Maxwell is imprisoned. She faces charges in connection with Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex trafficking network. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
Gates surround the entrances to the Metropolitan Detention Center on July 10 in New York City, where Ghislaine Maxwell is imprisoned. She faces charges in connection with Jeffrey Epstein's alleged sex trafficking network. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell will appear in New York City court on Tuesday hoping to keep secret a deposition about her ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska unsealed hundreds of pages of documents in July in which Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre accused Maxwell of training underage girls as sex slaves. The records were part of a now-settled 2015 civil defamation lawsuit.

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Maxwell's attorneys are going to court Tuesday to ask the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Preska's decision to unseal Maxwell's depositions.

Maxwell has so far been able to delay the unsealing of her 2016 depositions and defense attorneys say making public the details of the testimony will make it difficult for her to receive a fair trial and would be a "violation of [her] due process right."

During the depositions, they say, Maxwell was "compelled to answer numerous personal, sensitive, and allegedly incriminatory questions."

Maxwell's attorneys also argue that a lower federal court had "guaranteed" the deposition would remain confidential.

"If the unsealing order goes into effect, it will forever let the cat our of the bag," her attorneys wrote.

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Epstein, a U.S. billionaire financier, died last year of a suspected suicide in his New York City jail cell, where he was being held on charges of sex trafficking involving minors.

Maxwell was isolated from the general population at her jail in August, as a safety precaution.

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