Alleged Epstein associate documents closer to being released after J. Does agree to unsealing

Attorneys for convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell and alleged victim Virginia Giuffre submitted a list of 167 people who did not object to having their names published in court documents about their connection to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The filing earlier this month brings the court one step closer to publishing documents about Epstein's alleged associates, identified as numbered J. Does in the latest filing. It is unclear when exactly the documents will be published.

The motion is part of a defamation case brought in 2015 by Epstein accuser Giuffre against Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's former girlfriend who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking. While the lawsuit was settled in 2017, outside groups have pushed for the documents to be released.

The documents likely to be released in the coming months will include the names of Epstein's employees, more than two dozen alleged affiliates, more than a dozen alleged witnesses and more than a dozen purported victims, according to court documents.

At least four of the individuals in question about having their names published in court documents are deceased.

More than 20 J. Does could not be contacted about having their names in court materials unsealed, but Giuffre's attorneys still argued the material should be released.

Some of the Does were described differently by Giuffre and Maxwell. For example, multiple J. Does are described by Giuffre as "alleged victims" and by Maxwell as "alleged Epstein affiliates." 

Maxwell's attorneys strongly objected to the release of material on certain people, such as J. Doe 21, who is described as a "public figure" in a court filing.