Federal judge unseals hundreds of pages of Jeffrey Epstein court documents

The documents released Wednesday identified more than 100 people connected to the late sex offender, many of whom are not accused of wrongdoing and whose names were already publicly known. Several high-profile individuals, including former President Bill Clinton, former President Donald Trump, and the late pop star Michael Jackson, are mentioned in the documents. New York–based U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska last month ordered the documents to be unsealed after spending several years reviewing the records. The information is part of a civil case Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre brought in 2015 against Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been separately convicted of sex trafficking charges.

What else is happening with the documents? More than 200 records are set to be released over the coming days. Meanwhile, Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., has called on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to subpoena Epstein’s flight logs. Blackburn wants transparency on who was involved with the multi-millionaire and his history of sexual abuse. 

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read Emily Belz and Esther Eaton’s report on Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking trial.