Main: Annie Farmer holds a photo of herself and her sister, Maria Farmer, when they were victims of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a press conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act outside the U.S. Capitol Nov. 18, 2025. (Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images). Inset right: Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. District Court).
A federal lawsuit brought by several Jeffrey Epstein victims in Florida could be consolidated for discovery with another closely watched civil negligence case. The development comes as Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office fights a subpoena seeking his testimony, and U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon weighs the next steps.
Maria Farmer and her younger sister, Annie Farmer, are among the earliest known and most prominent victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking operation. Annie Farmer later became a key prosecution witness during Maxwell’s federal trial.
In May 2025, Maria Farmer filed a lawsuit in Washington, D.C. She alleged that she reported Epstein and Maxwell to the FBI in 1996, but that “the FBI, in violation of its mandatory obligations under regulations and DOJ policies, chose to do absolutely nothing,” according to the complaint.
On Sept. 25, Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled that the case should not remain in Washington. He ordered it transferred to the Southern District of Florida, finding it was “substantially the same as another case” that had already been moved there: Jane Doe 1 et al. v. United States of America.
Five days later, court records show, the Farmer lawsuit was assigned to Cannon, a Donald Trump appointee. The following day, Cannon found “good cause” to transfer the case to U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz, subject to the consent of the Joe Biden-appointed judge.
Leibowitz accepted the related assignment that same day. One week later, he directed Farmer, the Doe plaintiffs and the Justice Department to explain why the two lawsuits “should or should not be consolidated.”
The order has placed the parties at odds. Epstein victims Laura Newman and Sandra Ward, along with 32 Jane Does, are defending Cannon’s reasoning and supporting a limited consolidation. The DOJ, however, argues that combining the cases would be “not appropriate.”
“Upon a sua sponte review of the record, Judge Cannon determined that the present action and the Farmer action were ‘of the same subject matter and arising out of the same circumstances’ such that a transfer was warranted by good cause,” the Doe plaintiffs said.
The filing continued: “As such, in response to the Court’s inquiry to show cause why this action should or should not be joined with Farmer v. USA, all plaintiffs agree that these actions should be consolidated exclusively for discovery and pretrial issues.”
Farmer also supported a limited merger of the proceedings, but said consolidation should be confined “only” to “procedural issues, discovery and other pretrial purposes.”
The DOJ took a different position. In a court filing, the agency argued that “consolidation is not appropriate under the Federal Rules as the two cases, though arguably arising from similar circumstances, do not share sufficient factual or legal issues to justify consolidation.”
The government further contended that the lawsuits involve different legal theories and are at materially different stages of litigation. As a result, it argued, consolidation could prejudice the parties and interfere with the fair and efficient resolution of both cases.
The parties are now waiting for the court to decide whether the cases will be consolidated for discovery and pretrial proceedings.
The DOJ also moved at the start of the week to quash a subpoena seeking Blanche’s testimony. The department argued that requiring the attorney general to sit for a deposition in the Doe case would “threaten the separation of powers, chill agency decision making, discourage public service, and create potential for abuse or harassment.”
U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe scheduled a hearing on the subpoena dispute for 2 p.m. on Nov. 4, according to an order issued Wednesday.
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