People named in Maxwell case unsealed, not Epstein client list

People across social media for weeks have claimed Jeffrey Epstein’s client list will be released or leaked online in early January.

Epstein took his own life in August 2019 in a federal detention facility in Manhattan as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. He was accused of luring numerous underage girls to his homes under the guise of giving him massages, and then sexually abusing them.

#EpsteinClientList has been trending on social media with claims that at least 150 people, including some Hollywood celebrities or current and former politicians and diplomats, will be named as Epstein’s former clients.

Is a federal court releasing Jeffrey Epstein’s client list?

• Dec. 18, 2023 court order from New York Federal Judge Loretta A. Preska
• Jan. 3, 2024 court order from Preska
• Historical court record review of Giuffre v. Maxwell via PACER

No, a federal court isn’t releasing Jeffrey Epstein’s client list. The roughly 150 names being unsealed beginning on Jan. 3 could include clients, victims, alleged co-conspirators, law enforcement, medical professionals and witnesses. 

For the past six years, a New York federal judge has been reviewing motions to unseal documents that were filed in a civil lawsuit against Ghislane Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in December 2021 for helping Epstein recruit and abuse underage girls. Maxwell was sued by Virginia Giuffre, an alleged Epstein trafficking victim. 

There are more than 150 names from the lawsuit that are expected to be unsealed starting on Jan. 3, 2024. They are the individuals who have been mentioned in court records connected to that now-settled lawsuit. 

The judge presiding over the case in New York has not ordered the release of a specific “client list,” as some social media posts have claimed. 

Some previous court records from the settled lawsuit have already been released, but many names of individuals connected to Epstein or Maxwell in those records were redacted and given pseudonyms of John Doe or Jane Doe. Other records containing names were previously sealed and are now being released for the first time.  

In a Dec. 18, 2023 court order, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled the identity of most of the individuals with the pseudonym Jane or John Doe, or simply “J. Doe,” be unsealed. Preska immediately stayed the order for 14 days, or until Jan. 1, 2024, to allow any impacted “Doe” an opportunity to appeal her ruling on whether their identity should remain sealed or be unsealed. Forty documents were released on Jan. 3, 2024. 

Of the more than 150 listings in the order, at least eight names were ordered to  remain sealed because they were minors that allegedly suffered from sexual abuse. 

With the others, nearly all material related to the individual, including their name, were ordered to be unsealed for various reasons. For example, if someone didn’t “object” to any records and their identity being unsealed, or if the person had been publicly named in the media. 

Two “Does” were granted an extension past the Jan. 1, 2024, deadline to appeal, according to an order issued by Preska on Jan. 3. 

So, we can VERIFY the information being unsealed starting on Jan. 3 is not a “client list” but are the identities of people who have appeared in hundreds of court records stemming from the Maxwell lawsuit.