Keeping Maxwell Accusers’ Identities Secret Is Proving Tricky

(Bloomberg) -- Participants in Ghislaine Maxwell’s trial are finding it difficult to keep her accusers’ identities a secret. 

Four women who claim they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein as minors are expected to testify at Maxwell’s trial in New York on charges that she groomed girls for sex with him and engaged in some of the abuse herself. The judge is allowing the women to testify under pseudonyms to protect their identities. 

But “Jane,” the first of the women to testify has already had identifying information about her revealed in court multiple times. On Monday, defense lawyer Laura Menninger said the names of Jane’s siblings while questioning another witness.

Jane went on to offer often-graphic testimony on Tuesday about abuse she says began when she was 14. On cross-examination, Menninger asked her to read a letter on the stand that contained her last name.  

“Oh!” Jane said after she accidentally read her name aloud. 

U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan ordered the transcript scrubbed of the names. The prosecution objected when Menninger used the names of Jane’s siblings, leading to a closed conference with the judge. 

Some information about Jane was revealed in the course of questioning. Menninger pressed her extensively on her acting career in an effort to suggest Jane’s penchant for “melodramatic roles” may have shaded her testimony.

“Hopefully not melodramatic, just dramatic,” Jane responded. She also said on Wednesday that she was so “desperate” to keep her identity a secret that she allowed herself to be “basically blackmailed” into giving an interview to a reporter who threatened to publicly name her and her employer.

“I was scared, I was embarrassed, ashamed,” she said. “I didn’t want anybody to know any of this about me. I wanted to stay out of it. I -- I’m working on a TV show and I didn’t want everybody to know that that was me and associate me with any of this.”

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