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A U.S. judge has ruled that the Department of Justice is authorized to carry out the public release of investigative materials from the sex-trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Court Order Paves the Way for Records Release

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the ruling after the Justice Department formally requested in November to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from the cases of Epstein and Maxwell. This action could lead to the release of hundreds or thousands of hitherto sealed documents.

The court's ruling, which comes in the wake of the recent passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means these records could be made public within a 10-day period. The new law requires the Justice Department to provide Epstein-related records in a searchable format by December 19.

Judicial Pattern of Unsealing

Engelmayer is the second judge to permit the Justice Department to release previously secret records from the Epstein case. Recently, a judge in Florida granted a comparable petition to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein from the early 2000s.

A further petition concerning records from Epstein's 2019 criminal case remains pending.

Scope of Release Greatly Expanded

The DOJ has stated that the U.S. Congress aimed for this unsealing when it passed the Transparency Act. The latest request dramatically enlarged the range of files slated for release to include eighteen distinct types of evidence gathered during the wide-ranging sex-trafficking investigation.

These materials are reported to include items such as:

• Search warrants
• Banking documents
• Survivor interview notes
• Electronic device data
• Material from prior probes in Florida

Case Background

Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier, was arrested in July 2019 on federal charges. He was found dead in a federal jail cell a month later, with his death ruled a suicide. Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of sex-trafficking charges in December 2021 and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

The government has indicated it is consulting victims and their attorneys and plans to redact records to protect survivors' identities and stop the sharing of sensitive imagery.

Prior Releases

Tens of thousands of pages of documents related to Epstein and Maxwell have already been released through different channels, including civil cases, official releases, and FOIA requests.

Much of the evidence the Justice Department now plans to release stems from reports, photographs, videos collected by police in Florida and the local U.S. attorney’s office, both of which looked into Epstein in the mid-2000s.

That investigation concluded in 2008 with a confidential deal that enabled Epstein to evade federal prosecution by pleading guilty to a state charge. He served 13 months in a jail work-release program.