In a major development, more than 300 pages of court documents from a 2015 litigation between Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell were unsealed on Thursday evening. This release follows a previous tranche of legal filings from the defamation lawsuit between Giuffre, a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, and Maxwell, Epstein's alleged fixer. Among the documents unveiled were Maxwell's attorneys' motion to subpoena journalist Sharon Churcher, accusing her of assisting Giuffre in "fabricating stories" about high-profile figures such as Alan Dershowitz and Prince Andrew.

Maxwell's defense team requested that Churcher produce any interview notes and recordings from a 2011 Daily Mail article. They claimed that Churcher was not an impartial third party but rather a “co-conspirator” in the publication of false statements by Giuffre. Additionally, they accused Churcher of instructing Giuffre to write a "false diary" detailing alleged sexual abuse by Dershowitz and Prince Andrew. Both Dershowitz and Prince Andrew have vehemently denied any involvement in Epstein's sex trafficking ring or having sexual relations with an underage Giuffre.

The legal battles between Dershowitz and Giuffre continued for three years after she accused him of being one of her abusers. However, in November 2022, Giuffre admitted that she may have made a mistake in identifying Dershowitz. Consequently, the lawsuits were dismissed on both sides. Despite being named in the court documents, it is important to note that being identified does not necessarily imply involvement or awareness of any wrongdoing by Epstein.

Simultaneously, the release of these court documents caused the CourtListener site, operated by the non-profit Free Law Project, to crash within minutes. Initially, the site displayed the 40 documents made public by Judge Loretta Preska in New York. However, it quickly went down with a message indicating server overload or maintenance. Fortunately, the documents remained accessible on the PACER system, which provides public access to federal court records.

These legal files are part of a defamation lawsuit initially filed by Giuffre against Maxwell in 2015. Although the case was settled in 2017, Maxwell's attorneys fought to keep the names private. However, the objection was lifted in 2022, a year after Maxwell was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for sex trafficking minor girls. She has since appealed her conviction.

Judge Loretta Preska issued an order in December to unseal materials related to the case, which played a crucial role in consolidating the criminal case against Maxwell. The civil lawsuit brought by Giuffre also targeted Prince Andrew, accusing him of sexual assault and emotional distress. However, this case was also settled in 2022, with Prince Andrew adamantly denying the allegations.

It is worth noting that hundreds of names included in the Giuffre v Maxwell lawsuit remained under seal. The Miami Herald, whose investigation into Epstein led to his arrest in 2019, had previously sued for the release of all documents related to the lawsuit. This latest unsealing of court documents marks a significant development in shedding light on the alleged activities surrounding Epstein's sex trafficking ring.