Crime & Justice

Woman Linked to Jeffrey Epstein Begs Judge Not to Give Up Her Name

‘LIVES IN FEAR’

This week, a federal judge ordered the release of confidential files related to Jeffrey Epstein. But one woman is asking to stay anonymous, arguing she could be “in mortal danger.”

Jeffrey Epstein poses with Ghislaine Maxwell
Patrick McMullan/Getty Images

Days after a federal judge ordered the unsealing of hundreds of court files related to Jeffrey Epstein, one woman is asking for her identity to be kept secret.

“As Doe 107 has previously stated, she lives outside the United States in a culturally conservative country and lives in fear of her name being released,” the woman’s attorney, Richard Levitt, wrote to U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska on Wednesday night.

While Doe 107 wasn’t listed among the more than 150 associates and victims of Epstein who will be named in the documents—which are part of survivor Virginia Giuffre’s now-settled 2015 lawsuit against Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell—Levitt sought clarification on what records related to his client would be released in the future.

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Preska gave the anonymous parties, referred to as “Does,” 14 days to object before the latest tranche of records is released early in the New Year.

As The Daily Beast reported, some documents will likely include references to Johanna Sjoberg, who claimed Britain’s Prince Andrew groped her at Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2001; Doug Band, an ex-adviser to former President Bill Clinton; and Cathy and Miles Alexander, the onetime house managers of Epstein’s U.S. Virgin Islands residence.

The ruling led Giuffre to taunt some of Epstein’s associates 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?” Giuffre wrote on the social platform.

In October, Preska ordered Doe to submit “an affidavit supporting her assertion that she faces a risk of physical harm in her country of residence and providing detail concerning the hate mail she received” as well as “additional factual support for Doe 107’s contention that unsealing the relevant records would put her at risk of physical harm.”

The request came after Doe 107, the lawsuit parties, and the Miami Herald (which sued to unseal the legal files) agreed to redact Doe’s name and any personally identifying information in docket entries that the court previously ordered unsealed.

“Giuffre’s and the Miami Herald’s consent to such redactions is based on circumstances specific to Doe 107 and does not extend to other purported victims living in countries without the same risks of physical harm,” the letter stated.

The wording of the letter suggests Doe 107 could be a victim of Epstein.

On Wednesday, Levitt wrote that he wasn’t Doe’s attorney of record in the district court at the time and didn’t receive notice of the court’s request.

He declined to comment to The Daily Beast.

In a brief filed last year, Giuffre’s lawyer, Sigrid McCawley, previously objected to keeping Doe’s documents sealed. “Doe 107’s objection is premised on not wanting to be associated with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as a fear that unsealing would unduly invade their privacy,” McCawley wrote.

“Simply put, Doe 107’s aversion to being associated with Epstein and Maxwell, and the effects on Doe 107’s reputation, is not a reason to maintain sealing, and does not rebut the presumption of public access. Nor are mere allegations of Doe 107’s role in any wrongdoing enough to outweigh the presumption of public access…”

Doe 107 filed an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to fight the unsealing of her documents.

The appeals court, in an order remanding the issue to Preska for further review, noted that Doe argued identifying her “could place her in mortal danger in her culturally conservative home country,” where “‘honor’ killings are a real risk.”