In yet another twist to the story, a federal court has confirmed that the first batch of names from Jeffrey Epstein’s unsealed documents will be made public today.
After a judge ruled last month that the documents would be unsealed, they were expected to be released in early January.
However, as many expected the documents to be released this week, a court delayed the release until January 22 in a Tuesday ruling.
Yet despite the setback, Ed Friedland, the District Executive for the Southern District of New York, reportedly told The Messenger that the first 150 names will, in fact, be released on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
“The unsealing is expected to begin today,” Friedland said.
According to Friedland, only a small batch of the documents will be held back until Jan. 22.
The documents were ordered unsealed by Judge Loretta Preska in a civil case brought against Ghislaine Maxwell by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre.
Names of Epstein and Maxwell’s victims, associates, and alleged co-conspirators are expected to be made public, according to Preska’s order.
The document dump could include a bevy of high-profile names whose ties to Epstein have long been known.
The known names expected to be published include former President Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew.
The defamation suit against Maxwell was settled in 2017, but the Miami Herald newspaper filed motions in the case to unseal records that had been hidden from public view.
A federal appeals court sided with the Herald, paving the way for a cache of documents in the case to be filed publicly.
Preska ordered the latest batch of documents unsealed on December 18 but gave a 14-day window to allow for people who may be named to appeal the ruling.
As of Tuesday, no one included in the unsealing order had appealed the ruling.
Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges in 2019 and was later found dead, hanging from his neck in a Lower Manhattan jail cell.
He was awaiting trial on the charges at the time of his death.
The New York City Medical Examiner later ruled his death a suicide.
Maxwell was arrested in 2020 and convicted on five counts, including sex trafficking of minors, in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2022.
However, prosecutors have never revealed who Maxwell was convicted of trafficking victims to.