Ghislaine Maxwell's request to delay the unsealing of potentially explosive court documents has been rejected by a New York judge.
Lawyers for the British socialite accused of sex trafficking teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein, argued that "critical new information" had surfaced that could affect Maxwell's ability to obtain a fair trial.
But in a two-page order, US District Judge Loretta Preska said she had no reasonable basis to order their requested three-week delay on making the documents' contents known.
They come from a long-settled civil defamation case against Maxwell by Virginia Giuffre, who said Epstein kept her as a "sex slave" with Maxwell's help.
Maxwell has asked an appeals court in Manhattan to block the release of a 2016 deposition about her sex life, used in that case, also citing the threat to a fair trial.
Her criminal trial is scheduled for July 2021.
Meanwhile, US prosecutors are expected by Thursday to respond to a separate request by Maxwell's lawyers that she be moved into the general population at the Brooklyn jail where she is being held.
The lawyers said the 58-year-old has been subjected to "uniquely onerous" conditions, including 24-hour surveillance and numerous body scans.
They argue she should be treated like other pre-trial detainees.
Epstein was found hanged in his prison cell last August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell's lawyers called her treatment "a reaction" to her former boyfriend’s death by suicide.
