The judge presiding over a key lawsuit relating to pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, has died.
US District Court Judge Robert Sweet, who is based in Manhattan, died on Sunday. He was 96 years old.
Sweet, who ruled on cases through the last few months, was assigned to a lawsuit that emerged 10 years ago following Epstein’s controversial plea deal, according to Politico.
At the time, he pleaded guilty to two prostitution-related offenses.
Sweet oversaw the lawsuit that involved alleged sex slave Virginia Giuffre (now Roberts) against Epstein-friend Ghislaine Maxwell, who Giuffre has accused of aiding Epstein, 66, in sex trafficking.
Giuffre and other victims waived their right to sue Epstein in exchange for settlements.
Manhattan-based US District Court Judge Robert Sweet (pictured in August 2018), who presided over a key lawsuit relating to pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein, died on Sunday. He was 96 years old
Sweet, who ruled on cases through the last few months, was assigned to a lawsuit that emerged 10 years ago following Epstein’s (left and right) controversial plea deal
Maxwell and two others going only by 'John Doe' and 'J. Doe' argue that keeping the documents sealed, or at least covering up names and personal information of other people not named as a party in the lawsuit, is necessary to protect people 'whose privacy and reputations may be jeopardized,' according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
Former federal prosecutor Nick Lewin on behalf of a 'John Doe,' and Washington-based gender equality attorney Kerrie Campbell on behalf of a 'J. Doe,' have now joined Maxwell in fighting to keep whatever is stated in those documents a secret.
According to Lewin, Sweet described the documents as including 'a range of allegations of sexual acts involving Plaintiff [Giuffre] and non-parties to this litigation, some famous, some not,' as well as 'the identities of non-parties who either allegedly engaged in sexual acts with Plaintiff or who allegedly facilitated such act[s].'
Sweet said about the case: 'This defamation action from its inception in September 2015 to its settlement in May 2017 has been bitterly contested and difficult to administer because of the truth or falsity of the allegations concerning the intimate, sexual, and private conduct of the parties and of third persons, some prominent, some private.'
Lewin is now arguing that to make the documents public as a whole 'will almost certainly disclose... allegations that may be the product of false statements or, perhaps, simply mistake, confusion, or failing memories of events alleged to have occurred over a decade and half ago.'
Campbell said her client, J. Doe, is 'objecting to public disclosure of specific content pertaining to Doe to protect compelling personal privacy interests'.
The filing was initially kept private by Judge Sweet with the understanding that they would become public at the time of trial, according to Giuffre's attorney.
But there never was, and never will be a trial, because the lawsuit was settled in May of 2017.
It was three other parties seeking to make the documents public that resulted in Judge Sweet ruling they should remain private, Politico reported.
Harvard law professor and former Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who is now a prominent Trump defender, along with filmmaker and far-right social media personality Mike Cernovich, and the Miami Herald, each asked the judge to unseal the filings.
Sweet oversaw the lawsuit that involved alleged sex slave Virginia Giuffre (now Roberts) against Epstein-friend Ghislaine Maxwell (pictured with Epstein), who Giuffre has accused of aiding Epstein, 66, in sex trafficking
The documents were filed in alleged sex slave Virginia Giuffre's (pictured in 2011) lawsuit against Maxwell, which was settled in May of 2017
Dershowitz said he wanted the records made public to discredit allegations made by two women that he had sex with them at Epstein’s direction, which Dershowitz has denied.
Cernovich argued for the release because he said the continued secrecy has undermined efforts to expose sexual trafficking by the wealthiest Americans.
The Miami Herald asked the judge to make all records pertaining to the case public for inclusion in reporting on Epstein, which was published without the documents last year.
After Judge Sweet denied all three requests, a panel of three judges on New York's US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard arguments in favor of unlocking whatever secrets were contained within the files.
Giuffre has stated that redacting information like names, social security numbers and the like of third parties would not be difficult and so it should not be an argument against releasing the documents.
'Ms. Giuffre wants the summary judgment materials unsealed to demonstrate that she was sexually trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and
