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 U.S. District Judge Loretta
Preska in Manhattan scheduled a Thursday hearing
to discuss unsealing more than 80 documents that
Maxwell wants to keep under wraps.
They include flight logs from Epstein's private
jets, deposition testimony in 2016 in which
Maxwell's lawyers said she was asked "intrusive"
questions about her sex life, and police reports
from Palm Beach, Florida, where Epstein had a
home.
The documents were part of Epstein accuser
Virginia Giuffre's defamation lawsuit against
Maxwell, which was confidentially settled in
2017.
Lawyers for Maxwell and Giuffre did not
immediately respond to requests for comment.
Giuffre has accused Maxwell of enabling Epstein
to abuse her when she was underage, a claim
Maxwell has denied.
Maxwell, 58, is being held in a Brooklyn jail
after pleading not guilty on July 10 to charges
she helped Epstein recruit and eventually abuse
girls from 1994 to 1997, and committed perjury
by denying knowledge of his abuse in
depositions.
She is trying to halt the dissemination of
information that she believes could impede her
defense in the criminal case.
On Tuesday, her lawyers asked U.S. District
Judge Alison Nathan for a gag order blocking
prosecutors, FBI agents and some accusers'
lawyers from speaking publicly about the
criminal case out of court.
Maxwell's lawyers have said several factors
outweighed any presumption that the public be
allowed to access the documents Giuffre wants
unsealed. These include possible embarrassment,
the risk that disclosures might "inappropriately
influence potential witnesses or alleged
victims," and the possibility many "non-parties"
linked to Maxwell or Epstein could be exposed.
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 Some records, including parts
of Maxwell's deposition testimony, were unsealed
on Aug. 9, 2019, one day after Epstein executed
his will and one day before he was found hanged
in his jail cell at age 66. His death was ruled
a suicide. Epstein before his
arrest had socialized over the years with many
prominent people, including Britain's Prince
Andrew, U.S. President Donald Trump and former
President Bill Clinton.
He agreed with U.S. prosecutors in Miami in 2007
to plead guilty to state prostitution charges
and spend 13 months in jail rather than face
federal sex trafficking charges, an agreement
now widely seen as too lenient.
In excerpts from her April 22, 2016, deposition
previously made public, Maxwell said a "very
small part" of her job was to find "adult
professional massage therapists" for Epstein,
who had homes in Manhattan and Palm Beach.
Giuffre was 17 when she allegedly gave Epstein
massages in Florida, the deposition said.
"So she was 17. At 17 you are allowed to be a
professional masseuse and as far as I'm
concerned, she was a professional masseuse,"
Maxwell said in the deposition. "There is
nothing inappropriate or incorrect about her
coming at that time to give a massage."
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York;
Editing by Leslie Adler; Editing by Noeleen
Walder)
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