Dozens of new documents have been unsealed relating to Ghislaine Maxwell’s dealings with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes as she prepares to defend herself against accusations that she aided the financier’s sexual abuse of girls.
Among the documents released is a series of email exchanges between Maxwell and Epstein said to date from January 2015 in which they discuss Epstein’s 2007 arrest for solicitation of prostitution and Maxwell’s denial of any involvement .
A court sketch of Ghislaine Maxwell as she appeared for a bail hearing in July
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 and was jailed for 18 months.
The emails appear to contradict Maxwell’s claim at her bail hearing earlier this month that the pair had not been in contact for more than a decade.
Last week, US District Judge Loretta Preska in Manhattan ruled that a large number of the 80-or-so documents should be unsealed.
They relate to the 2015 civil defamation lawsuit brought against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who says Epstein kept her as a sex slave.
On Thursday, Maxwell filed an emergency motion seeking to block the release of two more documents – a 2016 deposition about her sex life and a deposition by an unidentified Epstein accuser.
The case has prompted a lot of interest in the US and in the UK
The documents could be unsealed as early as next week, depending on the ruling from the appeals court.
Maxwell’s lawyers have said it would be “difficult if not impossible” to find an impartial jury for her trial if the documents are released.
Maxwell, 58, has denied helping Epstein recruit and abuse three girls between 1994 and 1997.
She also denies committing perjury by denying her involvement while under oath.
Her trial is scheduled for July next year and she is currently in a Brooklyn jail, having been judged to be a flight risk after her arrest on 2 July.
Epstein hanged himself last August while awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking girls in Manhattan and Florida between 2002 and 2005, which he had denied.