This is going to be name-dropping for the ages — but it’s only a start.
A federal judge on Monday ruled that the names of those associated with convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstsein that have been under seal since his 2019 death must be made public, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, a Republican congressman went public the same day with an accusation that some of his “colleagues” have been “compromised in this area.”
According to the U.K.’s Daily Mail, a publication that has followed the Epstein case closely because of its British ties, the names are part of documents associated with a now-settled defamation case between Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts-Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s former lover and procurer.
U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska of the Southern District of New York made the ruling on Monday.
“Under the ruling, dozens of individuals — who have previously only been identified as ‘Jane Does’ or ‘John Does’ in various court filings linked to the suit — will likely be identified when materials tied to them are ‘unsealed in full,’” the Daily Mail reported.
Some of the “Jane Does” are Epstein’s victims — young girls who were brought into his orbit — though their names will still be withheld in some cases, according to the Daily Mail.
But the more than 170 names in question include far more than the unfortunate females who happened to fit Epstein’s questionable tastes.
The John Does are likely to be Epstein’s “powerful friends,” as the Daily Mail described it, and many will become public come the beginning of 2024.
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Their names are “are set to be exposed as part of a vast unsealing that a judge ordered on Monday will take place in 14 days,” the Daily Mail reported.
That’s not set in stone. The parties involved have 14 days to appeal Preska’s ruling, according to the Daily Mail. And given the way the Epstein case has proceeded under a cloak of secrecy — from Epstein’s free-wheeling days hosting the likes of Britain’s Prince Andrew, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and former President Bill Clinton to Epstein’s “suicide” in a federal prison in 2019 — it would not be terribly surprising if snags developed in Preska’s order.
But that hasn’t stopped social media users from speculating on what might be revealed:
BOOM: JUDGE RULED NAMES OF OVER 170 JEFFREY EPSTEIN ASSOCIATES SET TO BE UNSEALED IN THE FIRST DAYS OF 2024!
Judge Loretta Preska ordered Monday that Jeffrey Epstein’s vast network of powerful friends are set to be exposed as part of a vast unsealing via court records that… pic.twitter.com/tS3eKQccd5
— LIZ CROKIN (@LizCrokin) December 19, 2023
BREAKING: 177 Jeffrey Epstein high profile associates will be revealed in the new year.
Good
Judge Loretta Preska ruled that 177 names of Epstein’s friends, recruiters, victims & others shall be revealed to expose the pedoph*les s*x trafficking operation.
Some names include… pic.twitter.com/OsG3fC2vIi
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 19, 2023
Some people are about to get paid, some “pestered”, and some are going to get what they deserve.
May God bless Honorable Judge Lorretta Preska for having the gull to do this.
Anyone else think she looks like Barbara from the show Shark Tank? pic.twitter.com/zhS4xULmgP
— Stun Zeed | (@StunZeed000) December 19, 2023
But Preska, a judge nominated to the bench in March 1992 by then-President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by a Democratic-controlled Senate the following August, wasn’t the only one making headlines Monday when it came to the Epstein saga.
As Newsmax reported, Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett said he was pushing House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer to release flight logs from Epstein’s plane — dubbed “The Lolita Express” because of Epstein’s penchant for surrounding himself with teenaged girls along with wealthy, middle-aged men.
He was doing it, he told Newsmax’s Chris Salcedo, because Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn had been “snubbed” by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin when she tried to get the Epstein flight logs made public.
“Too many of my colleagues, I’m afraid, are compromised in this area for whatever reason,” Burchett said. “Somebody’s whispered in their ear and said, ‘Hey, you don’t want something to come out on something else, you better keep your mouth shut on this.’ And that’s exactly what they’ve done.
“And it continues to go, whether it’s the honeypot the Russians used to use or something worse, I don’t know. But it’s clear and you see that up and down the line. You see good conservatives vote for liberal policies and, frankly, you see some liberals occasionally will vote for something else.
“So obviously, the Congress has been compromised, and this continues on through the White House, through the Justice Department. The trash can is very deep. It’s not a swamp, it’s an open sewer.”
“Too many colleagues, I’m afraid. are compromised in this area.” @RepTimBurchett calls out the reluctance to release the flight logs of Jeffrey Epstein. @CSalcedoShow pic.twitter.com/IC5r7WrKg3
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) December 19, 2023
On a day when a federal judge has ruled for the unsealing of court records related to the Epstein case, Burchett’s words carried even more of a punch than they would have normally.
Blackmail and extortion against Epstein’s friends and clients — men in positions of wealth and power — has long been a suspected part of the Epstein story (at one point, Epstein threatened to expose a Gates affair, according to a New York Post report in May), but Burchett’s message was still jarring.
Maddeningly, he didn’t cite any examples of “good conservatives” voting for liberal policies for reasons that had nothing to do with politics, and he didn’t cite any instances of the Justice Department behaving out of bounds (though it would take a lot from the Justice Department these days to surprise anyone who follows the news).
But if there is blackmail being used against U.S. politicians in positions of power — no matter what party they’re from — Americans deserve to know it, and the system set up by the Founders gives them the power to purge it.
The first step is getting the names of everyone associated with Epstein and his sick enterprise.
And Judge Preska’s ruling Monday is a start.
