The Justice Department asked a federal judge overseeing the Jeffrey Epstein case to keep sealed the names of two associates who received large payments from him in 2018, NBC News claims. The outlet stated that it had requested the disclosure of the identities of the individuals who received the payments. “The Justice Department cited privacy concerns expressed by the two individuals as the reason for not making their names public,” NBC News wrote. NBC News: DOJ says names of two associates Epstein wired $100k and $250k to should stay secret. Story: https://t.co/5JkSMbzyRy — Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) September 6, 2025 More from NBC News: The first associate received a payment of $100,000 from Epstein and the second associate received a payment of $250,000, both in 2018, days after the Miami Herald began publishing a series of investigative stories where victims criticized a plea deal he received in Florida in 2008. As part of the plea agreement, Epstein secured a statement from federal prosecutors in Florida that the two individuals would not be prosecuted. The payments became public after Epstein was indicted and arrested in New York in 2019 and asked to be released on bail. Federal prosecutors in New York filed a memorandum on July 16, 2019, that argued Epstein should remain in jail to prevent him from tampering with witnesses. They cited the payments he made to the two individuals, which began two days after the Miami Herald began publishing its stories on Epstein’s plea deal, also known as a nonprosecution agreement, or NPA. Prosecutors said Epstein wired the six-figure payments to the individuals from a trust account he controlled. Each of them was named a potential co-conspirator. “This individual is also one of the employees identified in the Indictment, which alleges that she and two other identified employees facilitated the defendant’s trafficking of minors by, among other things, contacting victims and scheduling their sexual encounters with the defendant at his residences in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida,” prosecutors wrote, according to NBC News. NBC News said it sent a letter asking U.S. District Judge Richard Berman to unseal the redacted names. “Individual-1 and Individual-2 are uncharged third parties who have not waived their privacy interests; indeed, both Individual-1 and Individual-2 have expressly objected to the unsealing of their names and personal identifying information in the July 2019 Letter,” Jay Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, wrote. “The Government respectfully submits that the names of Individual-1 and Individual-2 should remain sealed to protect their legitimate privacy interests,” Clayton continued. Read Clayton’s full letter below: According to NBC News, the judge gave them until September 12th to respond to the Justice Department’s request to keep the names redacted.