Document 92

Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 92 Filed 11/09/20 Page 1 of 4 U.S. Department of Justice United States Attorney Southern District of New York The Silvio J. Mollo Building One Saint Andrew's Plaza New York, New York 10007 November 6, 2020 USDC SDNY DOCUMENT ELECTRONICALLY FILED DOC #: DATE FILED: 11/9/20 BY ECF The Honorable Alison J. Nathan United States District Court Southern District of New York United States Courthouse 40 Foley Square New York, New York 10007 Re: United States v. Ghislaine Maxwell, 20 Cr. 330 (AJN) Dear Judge Nathan: The Government respectfully submits this letter to request an extension of the deadline for the production of a subset of the electronic discovery in the above-referenced case from November 9, 2020 to November 23, 2020. This extension is necessary solely to allow adequate time for an outside vendor to finalize the preparation of documents extracted from electronic devices seized from Jeffrey Epstein for production. Over the past two days, the Government has conferred with defense counsel, who indicated this morning that they would only consent to the extension on four conditions, detailed below. Although the Government agrees to meet two of the defense conditions, it will not agree to the other two, which have no connection to the delay in discovery and no basis in law. Accordingly, the Government respectfully requests that the Court grant the extension to produce electronic discovery to November 23, 2020. To date, the Government has produced more than 350,000 pages of discovery to the defense over the course of five productions, and the Government expects to make a sixth production by the existing November 9, 2020 deadline, as detailed below. However, the Government's outside vendor has advised the Government that it requires additional time to prepare a seventh and final production of electronic discovery. By way of background, that final production comes from electronic devices that the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") seized from Jeffrey Epstein's residences in New York and the U.S. Virgin Islands in 2019. Specifically, in July of 2019, the FBI conducted multiple searches of Epstein's residence in New York, and in August of 2019, the FBI searched Epstein's residence in the U.S. Virgin Islands. During both searches, the FBI seized dozens of electronic devices. Pursuant to court-authorized warrants, the FBI then initiated the months-long process of gaining access to and extracting data from those devices. In or about January of 2020, the FBI provided some, but not all, of the data from those devices to the Government. At the request of Epstein's estate, a filter team conducted a review of that subset of data for potentially privileged materials. In or about February of 2020, the privilege team completed its review of a subset of data that the FBI had provided. In or about late February of 2020, the Government initiated a responsiveness review of that subset of data. On June 26, 2020, the Government obtained a new warrant expanding the scope of the DOJ-OGR-00001828 --- PAGE BREAK --- Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 92 Filed 12/08/20 Page 1 of 2 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK United States of America, -v- Ghislaine Maxwell, Defendant. 20-CR-330 (AJN) ORDER ALISON J. NATHAN, District Judge: On December 4, 2020, the Court received a letter from MDC legal counsel responding to the concerns that the Defendant raised in her November 24, 2020 letter. See Dkt. Nos. 75, 88; see also Dkt. No. 78. The Defendant responded to the MDC legal counsel's letter on December 7, 2020, reiterating her request that the Court summon Warden Heriberto Tellez to personally respond to questions from the Court regarding the Defendant's conditions of confinement. See Dkt. No. 91. Having carefully reviewed the parties' submissions, along with the MDC legal counsel's December 4, 2020 letter, the Court DENIES the Defendant's request to summon the Warden to personally appear and respond to questions. This resolves Dkt. No. 75. Notwithstanding this, as originally provided in Dkt. No. 49, the Government shall continue to submit written status updates detailing any material changes to the conditions of Ms. Maxwell's confinement, with particular emphasis on her access to legal materials, including legal mail and email, and her ability to communicate with defense counsel. The updates shall also include information on the frequency of searches of the Defendant. The Court hereby ORDERS the Government to submit these written updates every 60 days. Furthermore, the Government shall take all necessary steps to ensure that the Defendant 1 DOJ-OGR-00001876 --- PAGE BREAK --- Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 92 Filed 12/08/20 Page 2 of 2 continues to receive adequate access to her legal materials and her ability to communicate with defense counsel. SO ORDERED. Dated: December 8, 2020 New York, New York ALISON J. NATHAN United States District Judge --- PAGE BREAK --- Case 1:20-cr-00330-AJN Document 92 Filed 11/09/20 Page 4 of 4 Page 4 these materials come from devices seized from Epstein's residences, and none of the devices is believed to have belonged to the defendant. Further, of the approximately 1.2 million documents to be produced, only a handful were specifically relied upon by the Government in the investigation that led to the charges in the current Indictment,1 and the Government intends to produce those documents on November 9 with the rest of the sixth production. Additionally, as a result of the work being completed by the vendor, these materials will be produced to the defense in a manner that is readily sortable and searchable which should facilitate and expedite its review. The Government therefore respectfully requests that the Court extend the deadline for production of documents being prepared by an outside vendor to November 23, 2020, and that the Court similarly extend the motions schedule in this case by three weeks as requested by the defense. Respectfully submitted, AUDREY STRAUSS Acting United States Attorney By: Maurene Comey / Alison Moe / Lara Pomerantz Assistant United States Attorneys Southern District of New York Tel: (212) 637-2324 Cc: All Counsel of Record (By ECF) SO ORDERED. 11/9/20 Alison J. Nathan, U.S.D.J. The Court hereby extends the deadline for the Government's production of electronic discovery from November 9, 2020 to November 23, 2020. The Court also grants the parties' request for an extension of the motions deadlines as follows: the Defendant's motions are due by January 11, 2021, the Government's responses are due by February 12, 2021, and any replies are due by February 19, 2021. SO ORDERED. 1 In particular, the application in support of the July 2020 warrant included quotations from four emails extracted from the devices, and, as noted, the Government will produce all four of those documents to the defense by November 9, 2020. DOJ-OGR-00001831