The Department of Justice is trying to keep the names of two associates of Jeffrey Epstein secret.
The Justice Department asked a federal judge on Friday to deny a request from NBC News to unseal the names of two associates of the accused sex trafficker who received large payments from him in 2018.
In a letter to the judge, Jay Clayton, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, cited privacy concerns as the reason the individuals do not want their names to be released.
“Individual-1 and Individual-2 are uncharged third parties who have not waived their privacy interests; indeed, both Individual-1 and Individual-2 have expressly objected to the unsealing of their names and personal identifying information in the July 2019 Letter,” Clayton wrote.
The first associate received a payment of $100,000 from Epstein and the second associate received a payment of $250,000.
NBC News reported that the payments were made two days after the Miami Herald began publishing its stories on Epstein’s plea deal in 2018. As part of that deal, Epstein secured a statement from federal prosecutors in Florida that the two individuals would not be prosecuted.
The payments became public in 2019 after Epstein was indicted and arrested in New York and asked to be released on bail. Federal prosecutors argued Epstein should remain in jail and cited the payments as evidence that he could engage in witness tampering.
“This course of action, and in particular its timing suggests the defendant was attempting to further influence co-conspirators who might provide information against him in light of the recently re-emerging allegations,” prosecutors wrote at the time.
The judge has given NBC News until September 12th to respond to the DOJ’s request that the names remain secret.
