Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday said there was "no legal basis" to Ghislaine Maxwell's request to identify the women who have come forward as victims of deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein in her criminal sex-trafficking case.

The response came amid a dispute between Maxwell's defense attorneys and the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office over a protective order governing dispute in the case, which accused Maxwell, Epstein's longtime confidante and former romantic interest, of enabling his abuses.

Maxwell had sought an order that would allow her to publicly identify any women who had spoken about their encounters with Epstein in the media or in civil litigation. According to Maxwell's submission Monday, the move would allow Maxwell and her defense team to "conduct further factual investigation, prepare witnesses for trial, and advocate" on her behalf.

Prosecutors, however, said Maxwell's demand was "extraordinarily broad, unnecessary and inappropriate" and threatened the "dignity and privacy" of Epstein's accusers, who were as young as 14 years old when they first encountered the Manhattan- and South Florida-based financier, according to court documents.

"In essence, the defendant's proposal seeks authorization to drag into the public glare any victim who has ever made any type of public statement of victimization—no matter how long ago or how brief—without that victim's knowing consent and without any substantive justification," prosecutors said in a seven-page letter to U.S. District Judge Alison J. Nathan of the Southern District of New York.

Rather, they said, Maxwell should only be able to identify women who choose to speak on the record in Maxwell's prosecution.

So far, only one woman, Annie Farmer, has spoken out publicly in the case, when she asked Nathan at a July 14 hearing to deny Maxwell bail. A second woman submitted a written statement at the hearing, but did so under a pseudonym. Under the government's proposal, her identity would not be made public.

Maxwell was charged earlier this month with two counts of conspiracy, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts and transporting minors for illegal sex acts. She also faces two perjury charges for allegedly lying in civil depositions about Epstein's alleged abuses of young girls.

Maxwell, who pleaded not guilty, was denied bail and is awaiting her planned trial next June from a Brooklyn jail cell.

Epstein died in federal custody last year in an apparent suicide, ending the criminal case against him. Prosecutors have said that an investigation of his employees and associates remains ongoing.

Maxwell and the U.S. Attorney's Office are also at odds over the disclosure of discovery materials to potential witnesses in the case. Maxwell's attorneys have asked that the witnesses and their counsel be subject to the same protocols as the defense, and that they be barred from using any documents in civil litigation or otherwise disseminating them to the public.

In the letter Tuesday, assistant U.S. Attorneys said the government was already under "extensive restrictions" regarding its sharing of discovery, and said Maxwell's concerns were "irrelevant" in the context of a criminal protective order.

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