'It's a very real concern': Epstein survivor fearful of impending Supreme Court decision

Elizabeth Stein, who sued Jeffrey Epstein’s estate and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell for sexual abuse and sex trafficking, said in a new interview Thursday that she was afraid of how the Supreme Court may rule as it actively considers an appeal from Maxwell to overturn her 20-year sentence on sex-trafficking charges.

Epstein died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, and by the Justice Department’s own admission, had harmed “over 1,000 victims,” and with the help of Maxwell. Maxwell was convicted for trafficking victims to Epstein, and is alleged to have trafficked victims to other powerful figures such as Britain’s Prince Andrew.

Now, the Supreme Court is weighing whether to take up Maxwell’s appeal, and with an argument that experts say could be a winning one, leaving Stein to express genuine fear for her safety.

“It's a very real concern,” Stein said in a video interview published Thursday with Scripps News when asked if Maxwell’s release would make her fearful for her safety. “It's something that I don't know if people really understand how palpable that fear is. These are people who have unlimited resources.”

While Stein said Maxwell being released would make her fearful for her safety, the Court even deciding to take up her appeal, she said, would be an insult to Epstein’s countless survivors, and all survivors of sexual abuse.

“I'm hoping that the American public wouldn't stand for that,” Stein said, speaking to a scenario in which the Court agrees to take up Maxwell’s appeal. “If it did happen, this is a miscarriage of justice, and we're just seeing it overlooked at every turn.”

Stein said she first met Maxwell in 1994 when she was a 23-year-old student studying fashion, and met the now-convicted sex trafficker while working at a department store in New York City.

“We shopped and we talked a lot, I offered to bring Maxwell's packages to her, and when I called, I was told to meet her at the St. Regis hotel,” Stein said, recounting her first meeting with Maxwell. “When I arrived, the concierges let me know that she was in the bar and that she wanted me to meet someone. That someone was Jeffrey Epstein.”

Stein went on to describe how Epstein “groomed us and manipulated us,” with her 2023 lawsuit against Epstein and Maxwell including allegations of rape from Epstein, Maxwell and other individuals.

Maxwell is currently incarcerated in a minimum-security prison in Texas, a prison she was transferred to unexpectedly following her interview with a top-ranking Trump official, and against Bureau of Prison rules that prohibit convicted sex offenders from being incarcerated at minimum-security prisons.

Maxwell’s transfer, Stein said, was also insulting, and was also not communicated to her or other Epstein survivors by the federal government.

“To have her transferred from a prison that was mildly appropriate for her to a prison that is in no way appropriate for someone who's been convicted of these crimes is really just a slap in the face to us as survivors,” Stein said. “It really leaves us wondering what's the next step.”

Trump has labeled interest in the DOJ releasing its trove of Epstein-related files a "hoax" concocted by Democrats, though continues to be plagued by his own past ties with the disgraced financier. Stein dismissed Trump's assertion as disingenuous.

"You cannot tell me that a crime that by our Justice Department's own admission had 1,000 victims is a hoax," Stein said.