What the Failla: Epstein's famous pals are shaking in their boots
Fox News' Jimmy Failla has the latest on reports the names of some of Jeffrey Epstein's associates will be revealed, a family's Christmas card debacle and gift card scams on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
Virginia Giuffre, who accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein of abusing her when she was underage and who sued his ex-lover Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew, mocked the dozens of other Epstein associates scheduled to be named publicly at the start of the new year.
"Finally we are hearing members of the US government senators about the need for transparency and a call to arms for accountability!!" she wrote on X. "There’s going to be a lot of nervous ppl over Christmas and New Years, 170 to be exact, who’s on the naughty list?"
The quip came in response to a post from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a leading advocate for publicly naming Epstein's guests and associates in Congress. Blackburn posted out Fox News Digital's Tuesday article about the judge's order to unseal dozens of names previously hidden in court documents by Jan. 1, inviting Giuffre's response.
JEFFREY EPSTEIN SCANDAL: FEDERAL JUDGE TO UNSEAL 180 PREVIOUSLY REDACTED NAMES
Virginia Giuffre holds a photo of herself as a teenager, when she says she was abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Prince Andrew, among others. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"This wouldn't be possible without the Honourable Judge Preska," Giuffre added.
Giuffre could not immediately be reached for comment.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska oversaw Giuffre's 2015 lawsuit against Maxwell, which the parties settled in 2017. The court has continued to release and unseal documents since it ended, however.
DOZENS OF GHISLAINE MAXWELL FILES UNSEALED BY FEDERAL COURT IN SEX TRAFFICKING CASE
Preska, earlier this week, ordered the unsealing of documents expected to identify dozens of people, including associates, victims, investigators and journalists who covered the case. Some of the names will remain under seal, including those belonging to minor victims who never spoke publicly about the case and a person who the judge said was wrongly identified as an alleged perpetrator by a reporter.
However, Epstein's inner circle remains a topic of great interest to the public. The financier had ties to numerous influential figures, from politicians to Hollywood stars, leading academics and the prince.
Jeffrey Epstein pictured in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Sept. 8, 2004. (Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images)
The judge included a two-week stay in order to give anyone on the list a chance to appeal.
At least one person asked the court not to release her name, arguing that it could put her at risk of physical harm. She was not among the names ordered to be released next month, but her attorney wrote a letter to the judge Wednesday asking for more time to submit materials that would support keeping his client's name sealed.
A photo from 2001 that was included in court files shows Prince Andrew with his arm around the waist of 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre. In the background is Jeffrey Epstein's girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. (U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Preska outlined the reasoning in a 51-page order Monday. The order comes as part of a 2015 lawsuit between Giuffre and Epstein's madam, Maxwell. The case was settled in 2017, but the judge indicated in hearings in 2021 and 2022 that the names would not remain sealed indefinitely.
Some of the names have been withheld in some documents, which belong to people who have either spoken publicly about their connections to Epstein, have already been identified in other court documents or were identified in Maxwell's criminal trial.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend a performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on March 15, 2005. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Epstein died in a federal jail cell in New York in 2019. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, and Giuffre has created a nonprofit to assist trafficking victims.
There is still an ongoing fight to release the names of Epstein's clients and people who traveled on his private jet — which came to a head in Congress last week when Blackburn and Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., accused Democrats of "stonewalling" their requests for those documents.
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"It appears that bad actors within our government are going to great lengths to protect the pedophiles who took Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet," Blackburn wrote on X last week. "I will not stop working to reveal their identities. The American people deserve to know every name on that list."
Anyone who suspects trafficking can call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888.
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