A journalist has warned not all the names that will be listed in documents connected to Jeffrey Epstein have done something wrong.
A list of hundreds of people connected to convicted sex trafficker Epstein could be published later today after a deadline for court objections to their publication passed at midnight.
The sealed documents stem from a 2015 defamation lawsuit between victim Virginia Giuffre and Epstein’s former partner Ghislaine Maxwell.
US District Judge Loretta Preska ruled earlier this month there was no legal justification for continuing to conceal the information in the documents.
Until now, his associates have only been named as Jane or John Does in court papers.
US-based journalist Harriet Alexander noted, however, not all names revealed in the documents will have done something wrong.
“There's about 150 names – not all of these are accused of doing any wrongdoing,” she told Breakfast Briefing.
“Some of them are journalists, some of them are investigators, some of them are victims.
“We won’t have the names of people who were minors at the time.”
No 'real revelations' expected
Ms Alexander said the unsealed documents will “provide more light” on Epstein’s sex trafficking ring. "Any real revelations”, however, are not expected.
“It’s already been quite well documented,” she said. “There are names there that are very familiar to people already following the case.
“Bill Clinton is mentioned about 50 times, it seems... Prince Andrew will also be referenced in there.”
Ms Giuffre accused the former US President of visiting Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, but his flight logs suggest Mr Clinton never flew there.
The logs do show that Prince Andrew visited the island at least once.
Connections to Epstein
Ms Alexander said no criminal charges are expected to come from the documents’ publication.
The documents, however, definitely won’t do well in the court of public opinion.
“I do sense that if there was anything really dramatic and unusual in there, it would have already emerged,” she said.
“Certainly, it will be uncomfortable for those people who are named because it just brings it all up again.
“For people like Prince Andrew, he just wants it to go away but this is going to be yet more focus with how he got involved with these people.
“When other people were already running a mile from Epstein [after his conviction], Andrew stayed loyal to him.”
Epstein was convicted of child sex trafficking in 2008 and served 13 months in prison after a plea deal.
He was arrested again in 2019 for sex trafficking minors in Florida. He died by suicide in his cell before a trial.
