A court hearing involving Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell was interrupted after it was unlawfully live-streamed to thousands of followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory.
The hearing to unseal documents from a bombshell 2015 civil lawsuit against accused sex trafficker Maxwell ground to a halt on Tuesday when the presiding judge was informed that the proceedings were being broadcast on YouTube.
“Judge, I need to interrupt. I was just informed that apparently somebody is broadcasting this on to YouTube, so I don’t know if you want to give a reminder that that is illegal to do,” the deputy clerk told Judge Loretta Preska.
The stream had attracted 14,000 listeners after a YouTube personality gained access to the hearing, which was being held via telephone, and broadcast it to his channel with thousands of QAnon believers, the New York Daily News reported.
Adherents of the conspiracy theory believe that a vast cabal of Satan-worshipping pedophiles, that operates an enormous child-trafficking ring, control the United States government.
Viewers also shared comments supporting QAnon in the live chat that accompanied the video. “FREEE OUR CHILDREN NOW,” one commenter wrote. “PROTECT THE KIDS FROM THESE WEIRDOS,” another added.
Judge Preska issued a swift warning to the person broadcasting the proceedings. “Whoever is doing it, you are operating against the law,” she said.
“I suspect there is a way to find out. So I will ask you, most respectfully, to stop doing it.”
“We have had enough of lack of the rule of law around here,” she added. “Let’s try to observe it.”
The livestream was shut down shortly after the judge’s intervention.
The records discussed in the hearing are from Epstein victim Virginia Guiffre’s civil lawsuit against Maxwell. Guiffre has alleged that Maxwell recruited her to be Epstein’s masseuse when she was 15 years old.
In the lawsuit, Giuffre claimed that the British socialite defamed her when she called her a liar for alleging that she and convicted pedophile Epstein engaged in sexual misconduct.
The suit was settled in 2017 but Maxwell was arrested in July last year and faces charges for her alleged role in Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
Records previously unsealed in the case contained salacious claims about Maxwell, Epstein and Prince Andrew. Giuffre also accused the British royal of sexual misconduct and said Maxwell trained her as a “sex slave.”
During this week’s hearing, Judge Preska decided to release more documents from the case, however, some records involving Maxwell’s “intimate matters” will remain sealed.
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