One of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims has asked a judge to keep her identity secret, saying she “lives in fear” of her safety — after it was revealed the names of more than 170 people with ties to the accused sex trafficker will soon be disclosed, court documents show.
The anonymous woman, only identified as “Doe 107”, made the request in a letter filed by her attorney to Manhattan federal Judge Loretta Preska late Wednesday.
“She lives outside the United States in a culturally conservative country and lives in fear of her name being released,” her attorney wrote, adding that the woman “faces risks of physical harm.”
The request came just days after the judge ordered a trove of court documents to be unsealed in the coming weeks that name dozens of individuals with ties to Epstein, including ex-employees and victims, who have previously only been referred to as “Jane Does” or “John Does.”
The long-sealed court papers are linked to a since-settled defamation lawsuit that Epstein accuser, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, brought against the convicted pedophile’s madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, back in 2015.
While Doe 107 was not one of the individuals referenced on the soon-to-be released list, her attorney sought clarification from the judge on whether the exclusion meant the court had already decided not to unseal the woman’s identity, the letter shows.
The attorney pointed to a prior court filing from October that showed Giuffre and the Miami Herald — who initially requested the trove of documents be unsealed — had agreed to keep Doe 107’s “name and any personally identifying information” secret due to her safety concerns.
“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 attorney wrote.
The woman’s attorney acknowledged that the judge had requested Doe 107 provide “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” by Nov. 22.
Doe 107, however, missed that deadline because she had recently switched attorneys — and her new legal representation wasn’t aware of the cut-off, the letter says.
Under Preska’s Monday order, individuals who don’t want their identity unveiled have until Dec. 31 to appeal the decision.
While the ruling doesn’t list anyone specific, it references several Does as being a “public figure,” including one whose name was referenced in Epstein’s infamous little black book.
Most of the names mentioned in the papers set to be unsealed have already been made public, with a number of the individuals previously speaking out about their working relationships with Epstein or how they were victimized by him, according to the judge’s order. Many have also not objected to the release.
Still, Giuffre — who last year settled a $12 million lawsuit over allegations that Epstein sex-trafficked her to the UK’s Prince Andrew — appeared to taunt associates of the well-connected pedophile, suggesting that some of their names could be dredged up.
“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 X Wednesday night.
“Merry early Christmas,” she said in another tweet.
Giuffre, who has been described as the late financier’s “sex slave”, repeatedly thanked the judge for her ruling, calling Preska a “truth seeker & justice maker.”
Giuffre’s defamation suit, which was settled in 2017 for an undisclosed amount, had centered on her claim that Maxwell defamed her by saying that she was lying about being sex-trafficked by Epstein when she was a teen.
Maxwell was convicted in late 2021 of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Epstein killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.